Thomas Tuchel’s Chelsea demolished Arsenal and picked up all three points in the first away game of the Premier League season with a 2-0 win at the Emirates. In the first half of the game, the Blues were clearly the better side. Their efforts were rewarded with a debut goal for Chelsea’s new No. 9, Romelu Lukaku. Belgium’s all-time goal scorer tapped it in from close range after Reece James put in a cross from the right side. Lukaku continued to impress by dropping deep and holding up the ball to link up play with players out wide. With 10 minutes left in the first half, the Blues doubled their lead through the pacey wingback. The academy graduate finished off an amazing team goal which was started by Lukaku and had the involvements from Kai Havertz, Marcos Alonso and Mason Mount.
In the second half of the game with nothing to lose now, Arsenal decided to push forward and take the game to Chelsea, but was unsuccessful in scoring. All the north London club could do was make halfhearted attempts. The first 10 to 15 minutes of the second half was when Arsenal controlled the game, but after that, the Blues controlled the tempo without any difficulty. Despite the Gunners starting as the better team in the second half, Chelsea created the best chance when Lukaku’s header was brilliantly saved by Bernd Leno. The gulf in quality between both of the clubs was evident and the Blues’ quality was enough to secure the three points in the end.
Here are the lessons we learnt from Sunday’s demolition of Mikel Arteta’s Arsenal:
1. Romelu Lukaku is invaluable to Chelsea for the foreseeable future
Lukaku secured his £97.5 million from Inter Milan to Chelsea early last week. After having to isolate for a few days and only a limited number of training sessions under his belt, Tuchel dropped the striker into the deep end, starting him in the game away at Arsenal. In his pre-match interview, the German coach stated “we signed Romelu Lukaku to play, not to come off the bench.” This belief was fully repaid by the Belgian striker as he scored just 15 minutes into his second Chelsea debut, tapping in a James cross from close range.
Right from the get-go, Lukaku showed that he is not the version we saw of him in a Manchester United shirt. At Old Trafford, we saw a version of Lukaku who had a bad first touch, poor hold-up play and a player with a bad physique for the Premier League. This game just proved that Chelsea has invested in a player with none of those qualities, a player who has a whole host of experience and someone who has worked on his gameplay. Lukaku also showed how he can help the players around him and the club itself for the foreseeable future.
By improving the hold-up play, Lukaku has turned his career upside down for good. This shows how a player like Timo Werner can become a world class player just by improving a few aspects of his gameplay. Werner is very similar to the Manchester United version of Lukaku in a way. The German striker has to improve his physique, hold-up play and first touch, just like the Belgian striker did under Antonio Conte. Playing beside Lukaku can help Werner in improving as an overall striker and rediscover the form he displayed at RB Leipzig.