For £97 million, my expectations of Romelu Lukaku are pretty high. However, his output is nowhere near what it should be.
If there's ever a time to look back at the summer transfer window and contemplate the business the club conducted, it's now. Was Lukaku a good buy in hindsight?
Chelsea fans have been asking themselves that question ever since his interview with Sky Italia, and now they're looking for an answer from the Belgian on the pitch. To be quite frank, we are still yet to see it.
He may have scored against Chesterfield in the FA Cup, however, that is not enough. Chelsea might even have been better off waiting until the next summer transfer window for Erling Haaland.
The Blues faced Manchester City in one of the biggest matches of their Premier League campaign on Saturday. It was imperative for Thomas Tuchel’s side to take all three points away from the game to keep them in the title race.
Unfortunately, they came away with a 1-0 loss thanks to former Chelsea man Kevin De Bruyne. Ouch.
Considering Man City are the best team in England and arguably Europe at the moment, it was always going to be a tough ask. Chelsea beat Pep Guardiola's side three times at the back end of last season, so what was different? The only answer I've got to that question is Romelu Lukaku.
I cannot solely place the blame on Lukaku for the loss as there were several contributing factors such as injuries and poor displays.
However, sometimes you want your star players to take it upon themselves to create something out of nothing. Lukaku was tasked with doing just that on Saturday but he failed to produce the magic his former teammate De Bruyne did.
Tuchel said it best himself in his post-match interview: "We were active and aggressive, we just lost the game in one individual situation."
The expectation to perform as a number nine at Chelsea is immense. It is a lot of pressure, but the greatest players thrive under pressure.
We've had our struggles with strikers throughout the Roman Abramovich era. Andriy Shevchenko, Fernando Torres and Alvaro Morata have all failed to live up to the hype that surrounded their arrivals.
And right now, Lukaku looks to be headed down this same route. He has seemingly lost his relationship with the fans and looks to have lost the form he showed at Inter Milan.
There’s no telling as to whether Chelsea would have been better off waiting until summer 2022 to try and sign Haaland. For all we know, he could have suffered a similar fate at Stamford Bridge.
But the difference between Haaland and the Lukaku is that the Norwegian hitman is able to create something out of nothing. He puts up a fight and gives defences a torrid time, he thrives on the big stage. Lukaku fell flat at the Etihad Stadium.
All I'm saying is that if you cost a lot of money, you are expected to provide magical moments. Pieces of brilliance that separate you from the rest. We're yet to see that from Lukaku.
So far, the biggest talking point since his return to Chelsea has been that interview and subsequent apology. He needs to produce a performance on the pitch that steals the limelight.
Make sure you have subscribed to CareFree Chelsea on YouTube! The Fan Brands team along with plenty of your football.london favourites will be producing daily Chelsea content for you to enjoy including match reactions, podcasts, football fun and interviews. You can follow Anita Abayomi from the CareFreeChelsea team to keep up to date with his work.
