Chelsea firing early as they await second coming of Romelu Lukaku

Chelsea players celebrate after team-mate Trevoh Chalobah scores their side's third goal of the game. Picture: Tess Derry

Thomas Tuchel played down Chelsea prospects for the coming season after the impressive dismantling of Crystal Palace, insisting they are starting from a position behind the two Manchester clubs and Liverpool in this season’s Premier League title race.

There is a growing belief, however, that with the addition of Romelu Lukaku for a club record £97m fee, the champions of Europe can become champions of England once again.

True, Manchester City, the reigning Premier League champions, have also strengthened by paying £100m for Jack Grealish. But while the arrival of Grealish at the Etihad Stadium does not address any glaring deficiency in City’s galaxy of stars, the return this week of Chelsea’s former striker Lukaku from Internazionale will fill a very obvious hole in Tuchel’s team and should improve them instantly.

Lukaku is expected to make his second Chelsea debut against Arsenal at the Emirates Stadium next weekend after missing Saturday’s game while quarantining. In his absence, Timo Werner occupied the central striking position in Chelsea’s front three. To his left, Christian Pulisic sparkled, to his right Mason Mount shone. But Werner, as so often, was not quite in tune with his teammates.

And it was almost impossible not to imagine what Lukaku might have done with the service from wide positions – not just from Pulisic and Mount but also wing-backs Marcos Alonso, Cesar Azpilicueta and Reece James.

Tuchel hinted that Lukaku will be one of the least-rotated members of the squad. But he also held out the possibility that Lukaku and Werner could play together – although you suspect that the new man might not want any distractions in the central striking role.

“We expect Romelu out of quarantine on Monday and on Tuesday he can train so we will prepare him to be ready for Arsenal,” Tuchel said. “With the addition of Romelu we have the number one striker in and we want to have him on the pitch that is very clear when you do this kind of transfer.

“But I think he will take pressure from the shoulders of Kai [Havertz], Timo and Christian because Romelu is the kind of person who will link with continuity and he will lift the pressure off the young guys’ shoulders.

“I’m very happy with Christian, Timo and Kai because they give a lot of effort and put a lot of intensity into the team and I think with Romelu we have the opportunity to play with two strikers like they did with Inter with him or we can continue with three strikers. We will see how this works out for the players around him.”

Pulisic, for one, can hardly wait. “He [Lukaku] is a great goalscorer. He plays with his back to goal, he is able to link play well, he brings other people into the game. He does a lot of things well and a player like that is great for guys like me and creative players in the team.

“I’ve seen a good amount of his games for sure so I know a lot about him and I’m real excited to work with him. I think a lot of the players in this team are going to benefit from him signing for the club.” Chelsea had noted Manchester United’s earlier statement of intent in their 5-1 thrashing of Leeds United and, Pulisic said, wanted to make one of their own. “Not necessarily because of that game. But we wanted to make a statement in general and with a big season last year we wanted to make sure that the hunger was still there. I think everyone could see that it was.

Patrick Vieira, the new Palace manager, did not enjoy his first experience in charge of a Premier League side, and there could be tough times ahead if the further signings he says he needs do not work out. Despite a mass clear-out, there was a familiar and jaded look to the Palace starting eleven, and fresh ideas are as badly needed as fresh faces.

“It’s difficult to enjoy when you concede three,” Vieira admitted. “Obviously there’s more frustration. I believe that we had at times the opportunity to do better, especially when we had the ball, but we are not boxing at the same level as Chelsea. There’s a huge difference between the two clubs and the two teams but even then I was expecting us to show a bit more competitiveness."