Chelsea splashed out £97.5m on Romelu Lukaku a year after spending £47.5 million for Timo Werner and an initial £62 million on Kai Havertz, building one of the most expensive attacks in the Premier League.
Havertz bagged four Premier League goals in 27 appearances last season, while Werner had six in 35 games. This year, the duo has one goal apiece from seven appearances each, while Lukaku scored three in his first three games but hasn’t scored in seven appearances (all competitions) since then.
Now Chelsea face a $268m striker crisis, after Lukaku and Werner were both injured during the Champions League win over Malmo and will be out for some time.
I don’t know too much more,” coach Thomas Tuchel said. “Romelu twisted his ankle in the box and Timo has a hamstring injury. It will take a while for both. We need more examinations to be more precise, but they will be out for some matches.”
Havertz was in fine form when he came off the bench in the 23rd minute for Lukaku, scoring just after the break in the 4-0 rout. Havertz has struggled for form so far in his time at Chelsea. If he does get an extended run in the team, Premier League legends are predicting big things.
Havertz is a real player, he just needs a consistent run in the team, and he might get that now if Werner and Lukaku are out,’ Peter Crouch told BT Sport.
Paul Scholes added that he believes Havertz can pitch in 10-15 goals a season for Thomas Tuchel’s side.
If he doesn’t excel, Tuchel might just rue letting Olivier Giroud and Tammy Abraham leave.
Manchester United are very, very poor at set pieces. It’s not a new problem – last season they were second only to Leeds in the number of set piece goals they conceded (14) – but it’s one they desperately need to fix.
Against Atalanta in the Champions League, United was caught out by a quickly taken free kick and failed to defend the subsequent cross.
Harry Maguire and Luke Shaw poorly defended a corner, making it two quick goals for the Italian visitors and continuing a run of conceding easy goals.