Romelu Lukaku has had a very interesting start to Chelsea life. To the best of my knowledge he was welcomed back to the club in a way which now looking back was a bit too extravagant.
We had videos of him as a young supporter and as an 18 year old making his debut vs Norwich accompanied with a full launch video backed by a Jay-Z track. It was as if the messiah was returning to Chelsea, and no, not Didier Drogba.
Since his return Lukaku has scored 8 times in all competitions. One of those goals was against Arsenal so there is an argument to be had that it counts for 5 but unfortunately the league won’t measure it like that for us blues supporters. He has played against all of the top teams in England now and it’s fair to say he has been rather lacklustre in the ‘big games’.
As if by chance an interview was released in which Lukaku revealed his love for Inter Milan and borderline regret leaving them back in August. Now this interview to my knowledge was filmed to then be released in the Italian Winter break for supporters who needed their football fix. (This is according to Gab Marcotti from the ESPN Gab and Juls show). To me this would make some sort of sense, although this also came within days of Chelsea’s biggest game of the season vs Liverpool, coincidence? Maybe, but something isn’t right somewhere.
Chelsea played against Liverpool minus Lukaku in what I’d describe as a do or die performance. Chelsea were phenomenal and didn’t deserve a seldom point. Now I’m not sure Lukaku would’ve actually helped during the game purely because of the pace Chelsea played with, however, it would’ve been ideal for Thomas Tuchel to have the option to bring him on.
Fast forward to the following Wednesday and Chelsea destroyed Spurs in the first leg of the Carabao Cup in which Lukaku played the full 90 minutes and despite not scoring put more effort in that we’ve seen all season. A goal was needed, more for the fans than for the actual result (only 2-0) but nonetheless Rom did look like he had a point to prove, which is exactly what we need. In the exact same way Drogba had a point to prove when he was at the club.
With two more games against Spurs coming up plus a game against City, it’ll be interesting to see how Rom performs as we will be needing a big game striker.
Up the Chels.
