Craig Burley thinks Chelsea won’t be able to win the Premier League ahead of Liverpool or Manchester City while Romelu Lukaku is in the starting line-up.
It’s a fascinating title race at the top of the league between Man City and Liverpool in the final weeks of the season. Meanwhile, third-placed Chelsea are nervously looking over their shoulders trying to maintain a top-four finish.
Lukaku, who re-joined in the summer from Inter Milan, has endured a tough individual season.
The 28-year-old’s been in and out of the starting line-up, with Blues manager Thomas Tuchel mainly using him as a substitute in 2022. In fact, the Belgian striker has just five Premier League starts this calendar year so far.
He’s scored 12 goals in 40 games across all competitions, which is someway off what people were expecting from him pre-season. His overall impact in games has been very minimal, too.
ESPN pundit Burley suggests Chelsea will be much better off moving forward without Lukaku at Stamford Bridge.
“Romelu Lukaku looks to me like a player who wants to be anywhere bar plying his trade for Chelsea football club. He looks as if he wants to get the hell out of there because he’s not been able to handle the pressure,” Burley told ESPN.
“Ultimately, I think if Chelsea are going to attack Liverpool and [Manchester] City over a 38-game season, it’s crystal clear off the back of this season it’s not going to be with Romelu Lukaku. It’s not going to work. I think there’s too much damage to turn this around.”
Chelsea future
Lukaku’s reportedly considering other options ahead of the summer transfer window, which is no surprise given the season he’s had on a return to England.
It was another small blow to him at the weekend when he was an unused substitute in the 1-0 defeat to Everton.
He just can’t seem to win over Tuchel, who is using Timo Werner and Kai Havertz as a forward pairing lately.
It’s quite telling that he can’t get much of a look-in even when Chelsea deploy two strikers.
There’s still enough games remaining in this season for Lukaku to come good, but it would be quite the remarkable U-turn on what’s been a real disappointing year.
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