It had been tempting to fixate on Thomas Tuchel’s decision to drop Romelu Lukaku from the Chelsea squad after that interview. But it was a measure of what followed once the first whistle had blown that the club’s record signing – and all the drama around him – was swiftly relegated to footnote status.
Tuchel said that he did not select Lukaku because his situation had represented too much of a distraction – what with him saying that he was unhappy at the club and questioning the manager’s system. Not for the first time, Chelsea coped pretty well without him.
