Romelu Lukaku had started Chelsea’s two games before the scandal surrounding his controversial Sky Italia interview led to him getting dropped for the game against Liverpool.
He’s also started the three cup games since then, meaning few players in the squad have racked up as many minutes as he has since Christmas.
It was notable to see so many first team players Mason Mount, Jorginho, Mateo Kovacic, Andreas Christensen and Timo Werner subbed off in the second half of last night’s win over Tottenham. Thomas Tuchel clearly has Saturday’s crunch title race match in mind.
Romelu Lukaku going the 90 minutes tonight and Kai Havertz getting the evening off.
Wonder if there's something in Thomas Tuchel's mind for Man City…
— Adam Newson (@AdamNewson) January 12, 2022
So why leave Lukaku on? Adam Newson of Football.London suggested that it might mean the Belgian doesn’t start against Manchester City this weekend.
He notes Kai Havertz has had a lot more time off recently, and has a good record playing as a false 9 against City. We think Adam might be on to something here…
