After eight years, one of the most underrated centre-forwards in football history has returned to his old stomping grounds and made an immediate impact. He made the loudest statement imaginable: "this is what you've been missing out on for all these years".
In a London derby at the Emirates Stadium, Chelsea defeated Arsenal 2-0. Making his first league appearance for Chelsea since August 2013, Romelu Lukaku opened the scoring for the Blues. Reece James would add another to seal the victory for the reigning European champions.
When Lukaku first arrived at Stamford Bridge as an 18-year-old in 2011, the Belgian was just fifth in the club's pecking order up front. Didier Drogba, Fernando Torres, Daniel Sturridge, and Salomon Kalou were all getting more playing time than he was. Keep in mind that this was a Drogba long past his prime and a Torres who was a mere shell of the elite striker which he had once been.
The next season, Lukaku would be sent on loan to West Bromwich Albion, where the first signs of the great player he would someday become began to evidence themselves. Lukaku scored 17 league goals for a team which was otherwise devoid of any significant talent whatsoever. After returning to Chelsea the next season, he would play just two league matches before spending four years at Everton, where he would break out and emerge as one of the most promising young stars in world football.
Stints at Manchester United and Inter Milan would follow; it would be at Inter where Lukaku would firmly establish himself as one of, at minimum, the top three centre-forwards on the planet. Scoring goals at an astonishing clip, Lukaku would be the driving force behind Inter's Serie A title in 2021 - their first in 11 years. This compelled Chelsea to bring Lukaku back to London for the extravagant yet fitting sum of €115 million.
The idea of just one signing making the team which just won the Champions League an even bigger threat may sound preposterous at first. Yet, this is exactly the case with Lukaku. Last season, no Chelsea player scored more than seven goals in the league. Lukaku should easily manage more than 20 himself; his return to Chelsea almost certainly makes them favourites for a first league title since 2017. His 24 league goals last season would have been enough to have placed him as the Premier League's leading goalscorer; in fact, had he never left for Inter, he would have claimed this honour in back-to-back seasons.
Lukaku's combination of physicality, athleticism, positional awareness, and finishing is extremely rare; this combination has made him the superstar striker he now is. It is no wonder that he commanded such an extravagant transfer fee - and deservedly so. What's more, Robert Lewandowski is now 33 years old and soon to reach his decline while Erling Haaland probably won't peak for several more years. Lukaku could realistically claim the status of "undisputed best centre-forward in the world" as soon as this season.
Lukaku's signing also reflects a tremendous improvement on the part of Chelsea's front office. In past years, owner Roman Abramovich might have just spent money recklessly, made a splashy signing for no particular reason, then looked on as that new signing failed to fit into the team and underperformed because he'd have been signed without regard for team setup. This is certainly not the case with Lukaku. Chelsea badly needed a true goalscoring threat to not only make a serious Premier League title challenge, but also to contend for back-to-back Champions League titles. With Lukaku back at Chelsea, they now have exactly that.
It is mind-boggling to think about what kind of success Chelsea could've had if they had never let Lukaku leave for Everton all those years ago. Over the past six seasons, Chelsea have averaged just 70 points in the league; a figure bested by four other clubs. This would surely have been different with Lukaku in tow; indeed, when Lukaku was at United, his 16 goals led the Red Devils to their best league campaign in five years.
Very few clubs get this kind of opportunity to atone for a past error. However, Chelsea now have exactly this chance - they can now focus on building their rebuilt team around Lukaku as they could've done way back then.
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