It seemed one of the best weeks of Romelu Lukaku's interrupted Chelsea career. He had finally scored in back-to-back league games. He had illustrated the importance of picking a striker. And then came an interview, recorded earlier this month but belatedly broadcast. "I'm not happy with the situation at Chelsea," he said, talking of returning to Inter Milan one day and complaining about Thomas Tuchel's system.

Tuchel pronounced himself surprised by those "not helpful" comments. Had those sentiments been conveyed privately, however, it may not have been a shock. Lukaku was the £98 million (S$178.7 million) man designed to fire them to the title, just as he did for Inter. Plan B, when Chelsea could not recruit Erling Braut Haaland, became Plan C, when it felt Tuchel's preferred side did not include Lukaku.