Chelsea boss Thomas Tuchel was full of praise for club-record signing Romelu Lukaku after he scored to help the Blues beat Arsenal 2-0.
Speaking to the media after the game against Arsenal, as relayed by the club’s official website, Chelsea manager Thomas Tuchel has hailed the impact of new signing Romelu Lukaku after his goal-scoring debut for the Blues.
Lukaku returned to Chelsea this summer, seven years after having left the club. Making his second debut for the west London club around ten years after he played his first-ever game for the Blues, the 28-year-old made a perfect start to life, scoring early in the game against the Gunners.
That early goal set the tone as Chelsea went on to clinch a 2-0 win against Arsenal, making it two wins in two games in the new Premier League season while heaping their local rivals in further misery. And, speaking after the game, manager Thomas Tuchel expressed his pleasure at the impact that his new marquee signing had made in such a short time at the club.
“I’m very happy with the way he has integrated already. He’s a very smart guy, he likes to be in the group and he’s a very democratic leader so he talks to everybody. He is very friendly, humble and totally competitive so he gives something to our game that we did not have so much to protect balls and play very direct up front into the last line,” he said.
Love it. ? pic.twitter.com/rHNG5GuRiF
— Chelsea FC (@ChelseaFC) August 22, 2021
“He cannot start better than with a goal. He almost scored a second one but for a big save from Bernd Leno and he assisted some half-chances and chances as well so it’s a good start. Now we have to improve from here,” Tuchel further added on the Belgian international.
When asked if he expected this kind of impact from his new No. 9, Tuchel said: “I didn’t expect too much. I wanted to be open to watch him, to see his strengths and his capability to adapt and link up with Kai and Mason. This is what he did very well. The guys like to play with him and from here we can go into the details.”
As Tuchel said, things could not have gone any better for Lukaku on his second debut for Chelsea, with him off to a scoring start. The fact that it came against a derby rival will only make the feeling sweeter. It will now be up to him to build on this display and help the team to silverware.
