When Roman Abramovich sanctioned the $130 million signing of Romelu Lukaku before the start of the season, Chelsea were expecting an ample return from arguably the most in-demand striker in Europe. Have they got it wrong?
Lukaku scored as many goals in the first two league matches of last season, starting a campaign in which he would fire Inter Milan to the title, as he has in his entire Premier League campaign since rejoining Chelsea – and he even missed 35 minutes of those two games for Inter Milan.
That is one of the starker facts as his new team heads into the second half of a season that has shown signs of faltering since a win at Watford at the start of December, featuring a single victory in four games, when they needed a last-gasp Jorginho penalty to beat fifth-bottom Leeds at Stamford Bridge.
Chelsea breaks Club transfer record to re-sign Lukaku for £97.5m
The missing piece in Tuchel super team is found 🤩🤩🤩#Lukwhosback pic.twitter.com/rVyXG9BVOl
— Naija Football Talk ⚽️ (@NaijaFT_tweet) August 12, 2021
Thomas Tuchel looked furious after his side labored to a 3-3 draw as part of that run at Zenit, a team who finished eight points behind Chelsea in third place in their Champions League group and had little to play for except pride and the prestige of competing with Premier League title contenders.
Penalty taker Jorginho is their second-top scorer on six goals. England midfielder Mason Mount has one more than the Ballon d’Or nominee, bolstered by a hat-trick in the 7-0 win at home to relegation-haunted Norwich.