INTERNATIONAL: Chelsea rediscovered some of their fluent attacking forms as they beat Lille 2-0 in the first leg of their Champions League last-16 tie on Tuesday, but the talk at Stamford Bridge was more about the striker who did not play than the ones who did.
Record signing Romelu Lukaku sat on the bench as an unused substitute while fellow strikers Kai Havertz and Christian Pulisic claimed the goals that put reigning champions Chelsea in the driving seat to advance to the quarter-finals.
On Saturday, against Crystal Palace, Lukaku had the fewest touches of the ball -- seven -- ever recorded for a player on the pitch for at least 90 minutes in a Premier League game since such data began to be collected in full in the 2003-04 season.
That unwanted record added to the questions being asked about the Belgian's role in Thomas Tuchel's side which has often looked more dangerous this season when Lukaku was absent with injury or due to COVID-19.
Lukaku scored 24 league goals and provided 11 assists for Inter Milan last season to help them clinch the Serie A title and he got off to a good start in his second spell at Stamford Bridge after his move to London in August.
He scored three goals in his first three Premier League games and linked up well with fellow strikers.
CHELSEA MANAGER THOMAS TUCHEL SAID
"Every game is different, the focus was today on intensity and high-speed game and on also hard work against the ball, off the ball to have an intensive teamwork and Romelu struggled in the last games a little bit to deliver that. That's what I meant when I said I felt him a bit tired, not only mentally tired but also physically tired which I can understand. He played like, I think since the Liverpool game he started every match for us with some extra times in it as well and yeah it is like this and then today we went for three other players too and Kai (Havertz) is in a very good shape, full of confidence and gives a lot of work rate and high intensive metres to the team and that was the decision today. For Sunday we have four days to decide and to recover and of course, he has every chance to play."
CHELSEA MANAGER THOMAS TUCHEL SAID
"Yeah, also it was not the moment after the match where everybody was focused on the few touches that he had to put him right away into the next fire. It was the moment to take a step back, that was the decision and that's it. But you can clearly see, I mean we have now a strong win, we had a strong performance, it was a tough match and almost every question is about Romelu so the focus is huge. There are like nine other players who did not play and we should never forget that we consider this sport a team sport and this is it. And the 11 guys who play do everything to commit fully to what we plan and to commit fully to their teammates and the guys from the bench have to do the same and this is how it works, especially at Chelsea and especially for us and this is how we win football games."
Tuchel told reporters after the win over Lille that he had decided Lukaku needed a break after starting in a string of games recently.
"The focus was today on intensity, on a high-speed game and hard work off the ball," the German coach said. "Romelu struggled in the last games to deliver that."
Lukaku did score two of Chelsea's three goals during the Club World Cup tournament that the Londoners won in Abu Dhabi earlier this month.
But the threat posed by Havertz throughout Tuesday's defeat of Lille, and his hard work rate, suggested the German may get the nod ahead of the Belgian when Chelsea come out of the tunnel at Wembley on Sunday for the League Cup final against Liverpool.
