Thomas Tuchel has admitted Romelu Lukaku's performance against Arsenal earlier in the season was a reason behind the striker starting against the Gunners this evening. Lukaku started for the Blues alongside Timo Werner and Mason Mount in a front three, with Kai Havertz dropping to the bench.
Lukaku, who hasn't scored a Premier League goal for Chelsea since late December, is perhaps the surprise inclusion in Tuchel's XI against Arsenal. However, due to Havertz's mass amount of minutes in recent matches means the German has dropped down to the bench.
"You were asking so much about him, so finally I put him in," Tuchel said to Sky Sports about Lukaku pre-match. "We want to play with two strikers, and Kai has heavily overloaded himself in the last few matches.
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"He's tired, so it was the moment to go with Romelu. If you have a good experience or a good memory against an opponent, it can help. It wasn't the main reason. The main reason is because he deserves to play first of all and we want to play with two strikers. Kai has lots of minutes in his legs, and he [Lukaku] had a good game against Arsenal in the first game."
Lukaku's lack of form has been somewhat of a mystery to Tuchel in recent times, but the Chelsea head coach recently told the Belgian what he needed to do to get his career back on track in west London. "For us, it is clear, we can play with Romelu, and we can be very strong with Romelu, and we proved it. And we will prove it if he is involved and keeps involved mentally and he stays involved in the situation to go through this, and he can grow from it and come back stronger.
"It is always like this, and it is for sure disappointing for him and not what we expected, not what we expected at the moment, but it is not finished, and we will not give in. We never give in with any players, and we never give up. We will push him, we will push as far as we can, and as long as the player stays involved in the mentality that is needed to bring a team forward, he can still be a crucial player."
