The theory that Romelu Lukaku would give Chelsea the one thing they had been lacking under Thomas Tuchel always looked to be a sound one.
For all that the Blues shone in the second half of last season, they were generally wasteful in front of goal. It didn’t take much analysis to conclude the addition of a £98m striker with 64 goals in 95 games for his last club would help address this.
And now there is some actual evidence to support this hypothesis following Lukaku’s goalscoring (second) debut for Chelsea in Sunday’s 2-0 away win over Arsenal. After only one week of training with his new teammates, the Belgian already appears to have been seamlessly integrated into Tuchel’s side.
He was irrepressible throughout and could have score more than just one.
The significance of Lukaku’s arrival at Stamford Bridge is greater than his quality as an individual, though. Indeed, the 28-year-old’s signing means Chelsea are now the most complete team in the Premier League. This doesn’t necessarily mean Tuchel’s men will win the title, but no other side is as rounded as they are.
Tuchel now has a Swiss Army knife of a football team. Chelsea can play on the counter attack, as they did for much of the second half of last season, through the pace of Timo Werner and Lukaku, who is most devastating when he is allowed to turn and run at the opposition. They can, however, also control games through the likes of Jorginho and Mason Mount.
What is most impressive about these two approaches is that Chelsea have the intelligence to toggle between the two within the one match. This is what the visitors to the Emirates did on Sunday, holding Arsenal at arm’s length for period before hitting them hard and fast on the break.
Chelsea now have the ability to build around a central trio of Kai Havertz, Lukaku and Mount with the wing backs pushed high to provide width. Or they can spread their three attackers the width of the pitch to stretch the opposition deface and create space for runners from midfield. Tuchel could even use Lukaku and Werner as a front two with the latter in the Lautaro Martinez role.
Nobody made more dribbles than Lukaku did over the 90+ minutes with the 28-year-old also firing off more shots on goal (eight) than Arsenal managed as a team (six). Underlining his value as a facilitator as well as a goalscorer, Lukaku even registered three key passes. It was the complete centre forward performance.
There was even a point in the second half against Arsenal at which Tuchel shifted Lukaku out to the right with Kai Havertz deployed through the middle. This suggests the Chelsea boss has a firm grasp of Lukaku’s qualities as a centre forward, unlike Jose Mourinho who frequently used the Belgian as a frontman to hit with long balls and crosses.
🔴 #AFC (0.69xG) 0- 2 (3.18xG) #CFC 🔵
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💪🔵 Romelu Lukaku scored on his second Chelsea debut in a 2-0 win at Arsenal and fair to say the scoreline could have more...#CFC #ARSCFC
All this made Arsenal look incoherent as a unit. While Mikel Arteta was without a number of key figures through injury and illness, there was very little to suggest the Spaniard is getting any closer to achieving his vision for the Gunners, whatever that is. There was no structure to their play against Chelsea just as was the case in the opening weekend loss to Brentford.
At no point did it seem as if Arsenal were on the brink of a breakthrough. Even when they had spells of possession, it was with no purpose - Granit Xhaka was their only midfielder or attacker to register a single key pass. No Arsenal player managed more than one shot on target with only three through balls attempted.
Arsenal fans have been told to ‘trust the process’ with Arteta at the helm, but what that process actually entails still isn’t clear. Having claimed just 37% of the ball against Chelsea, the Gunners can’t be described as a possession-based side. They aren’t a high-pressing team either, dispossessing Chelsea just 11 times over the entire 90+ minutes, and they certainly aren’t a counter-attacking outfit either.
Individually, there is a clear difference between the talent in Tuchel’s squad and that Arteta has to work with, but the gulf between the two London rivals is about more than just the quality of the players on the pitch. While Chelsea are the Premier League’s most complete team, capable of doing many things in many ways, Arsenal are yet to even find one area of the game they do well.
