After waiting for domestic football to return for what seemed an age through the international break, two games came along at once. They were two good games, as well, and it was good to have Chelsea back. Following those matches, what we now know for sure is that Romelu Lukaku is the real deal as far strikers are concerned. Whilst the media darlings may be getting caught up in a feeding frenzy of Ronaldo mania, Lukaku has outscored Manchester United’s star player so far.
First up at Stamford Bridge was what can be best be described as a dogged Aston Villa side, minus its fantastic talisman, who left the club in the summer. John Terry cut his ties with the Villains and was rightly in the stands supporting his club, amongst his people. JT, Chelsea’s next manager, will be forever blue and it’s a beautiful thing. Talking of former Chelsea greats, it’s good to see that Jose Mourinho appears to have recovered his mojo in Rome after a couple of underwhelming spells in England. Tammy Abraham has joined him and has hit the ground running, grabbing two goals and two assists in his first five games. No doubt JT will get Tam-braham back once he’s at the helm of the club.
Chelsea is back in action after the international break and The Father of the Pride has some thoughts on the matches
Getting back to the Villa game, it could have all been different were it not for our goalkeeper, Edouard Mendy. Once again, he kept a clean sheet and although that’s not as glamorous as scoring a goal, not conceding undoubtedly helps the cause. Of course, if we need goals, we have Lukaku. The Belgian showed his striking supremacy by grabbing the first goal following a sublime through ball from Mateo Kovacic.
As the game played out, Villa continued with the irritating, niggly fouling favoured by so many less skilful teams until a mistake by Tyrone Mings put Kovacic through on goal. The Croat greedily helped himself to a rare goal clipping the ball over Jed Steer in the Villa goal. Of course, it was our man at the top who finished the game off. Cesar Azpilicueta’s cross-field ball landed at Lukaku’s feet and he stroked it into the net, leaving the keeper with no chance of saving it.
Two takeaways from the game were Marcos Alonso being captain and the continued absence from the starting XI of Ben Chilwell, or Chilly, as Thomas Tuchel likes to call him. Alonso being captain is no real biggy, everyone on the pitch ought to be a leader but Chilwell missing out again was more troubling. However, no one was too concerned with a lot of games in the pipeline, he was sure to start in the Champions League tie.
In no time at all, Zenit St. Petersburg was in town and the Champions of Europe—we know who we are—set out on the trail of European glory once more. It’s always easy to get carried away with thoughts of goals in these early group stage games, however, the Russian side was never going to roll over like Villa. Ben Chilwell didn’t start *adopts a very worried face*. Chelsea had to be patient in this opening tie. The goal, when it came, was almost a repeat of Saturday’s final goal. A cross-field ball from Azpilicueta into the penalty box was met by the head of Lukaku (rather than his feet) and the game was over. We may well see this Azpi-Lukaku combination throughout the season. Not since Alvaro Morata was at the club could our captain be more prolific with his assists.
At the start of last weekend, Tottenham was top of the league, but Spurs currently sit seventh after losing heavily at Crystal Palace. Chelsea has the opportunity to inflict further pain on the north Londoners on Sunday afternoon. The good news from Tuchel’s Friday press conference is that N’Golo Kante is fully fit once again. The bad news from Tottenham’s point of view is the Blues are winning without yet really firing. Should they hit the nitro switch, it won’t just be Tottenham in their wake.