Romelu Lukaku revels in ‘dominant’ performance against Arsenal on Chelsea return
The Chelsea striker scored just 15 minutes into his return to the club and produced a dominant performance as the Blues defeated Arsenal 2-0 at the Emirates
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Your support makes all the difference.Romelu Lukaku described his performance against Arsenal as “dominant” as the striker marked his return to Chelsea with his first goal for the club in the 2-0 win in the Premier League.
The 28-year-old, who was with Chelsea from 2011 to 2014, became the club’s record signing when he arrived from Inter Milan for a fee of £97.5 million following a successful two-year spell in Serie A.
And it took the Belgian international just 15 minutes to open his account for the club as he first held off Arsenal defender Pablo Mari before getting on the end of Reece James’ cross to tap home from six yards.
Lukaku was involved in Chelsea’s second goal as he again resisted Mari’s challenge to create space for James, and the striker was denied a second goal near the end of the match when Bernd Leno tipped his header onto the crossbar.
When asked after the match to describe his display on his return to the Premier League, Lukaku replied with a smile: “Dominant, I would say. Dominant.”
“I try to improve every time [I play],” he went on to say as he spoke to Sky Sports. “I have a long way to go but today was good. I wanted to win and to start well and now we have to keep working, keep building and keep getting stronger because the Premier League is a very competitive league but I’m ready for the challenge and hopefully we can improve.
“At the end of the day you want to work hard for the team, you want to win, you want to score, you want to create chances. This team is very talented. We are European champions but we want to keep building, keep fighting and keep delivering performances like this.”
“I think you saw parts [of my game],” Lukaku added. “But not only from me but from the team. The team adapted really well. I asked a lot of questions to the players and they helped me a lot and made life very comfortable for me, so I wasn’t stressed when I came into the game. I was very focussed and there was one thing on my mind which was to win the game for the club and for the fans.
“It’s good to start like this. I worked hard throughout the week, we knew it would be a big game for us and that everybody would be watching us but we did well. I said I would add something different to the team and hopefully I did that and can continue to do that and help them win.”
Lukaku has now scored 114 goals in the Premier League following previous spells at West Brom, Everton and Manchester United.
Chelsea travel to Liverpool next week with both sides having won their first two matches of the season.
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