Don Hutchison is predicting that Chelsea manager Thomas Tuchel will decide to recall Romelu Lukaku to the starting line-up against West Ham.
Chelsea will look to temporarily extend their lead at the top of the Premier League table in Saturday’s early kick-off away to rivals West Ham.
The Blues edged past Watford 2-1 in midweek, so are currently a point clear at the top of the league.
Thomas Tuchel’s side are boosted by the injury return of Reece James this weekend, too.
Pundit Hutchison reckons that Lukaku is going to be back in Chelsea’s XI tomorrow for the first time since October.
The 28-year-old centre-forward has spent time sidelined through injury but been eased back into action recently with cameo performances from the bench in the past couple of matches.
“I think he might go Lukaku [against West Ham]. He’s given him a few minutes over the last couple of games. He’s trying to get him back up to speed. You can sort of get through 45/60 minutes of a game. He must just tire towards the end,” Hutchison told Premier League’s Weekend Warm-up.
Lukaku key to Chelsea
Chelsea’s squad have all successfully chipped in with goals to help ensure they’re top of the league after 14 league matches.
However, surely they’ll need their frontman to find the back of the net regularly to sustain a title bid.
Lukaku’s arrival from Inter Milan in the summer was meant to solve the club’s issue at striker, but his return to the Bridge has been disrupted so far.
He scored 20-plus league goals in the two previous seasons in Italy with Inter and Chelsea will be begging for him to start finding his goalscoring form in the coming games.
Tuchel’s played it fairly safe by slowly reintegrating Lukaku, but the fixtures are starting to come thick and fast.
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