• June 13, 2022
• Olaoluwa Nwobodo

A worrying majority of Chelsea fans cannot wait to see the back of Belgium No. 9 Romelu Lukaku. This is not out of place in and of itself, until you remember that he’s Chelsea’s record signing and he arrived less than 12 months ago. Lukaku seems to be as keen on leaving as the fans are on wanting him gone. Reports have surfaced that he has been communicating with his former club Inter Milan’s representatives.

All these can be traced to his infamous interview with Sky Sports Italia. In the interview, he, amongst other things, expressed how much he enjoyed his time at Inter and his wishes to return to Milan. He even went as far as saying Inter Milan center forward Lautaro Martinez should not bother trying for a move to Chelsea as he (Lukaku) would soon meet him back at Inter.

These comments, and some others, irritated many Chelsea fans, and rightly so. Arrogance and a lack of accountability were perceived by many Chelsea fans. This made many Chelsea fans subsequently refuse to cut the Belgian any slack. Lukaku was not in hot goal-scoring form before the interview was released, however, after the interview Chelsea fans always found reasons to heavily criticize him when he did not score, and even sometimes when he did.

More than two months before the season ended, many fans were already expressing their desire to see him gone. At some point in the season, he was benched for seven consecutive games, much to the delight of a large section of the fanbase. The season has now ended and many fans are claiming he has been horrendous and he has been the worst signing in the club’s history. Or has he?

Lukaku scored eight league goals last season, granted it was not much compared to what you expect from a £98 million center forward signing. Context is important though, and perhaps it should be looked at from another perspective (pun intended). Lukaku had eight goals and ranked second in the league goal chart for Chelsea. The player who ranked first scored 11 league goals. That player also started 11 more games and played 775 more minutes than Lukaku. for context that is the equivalent of playing 8.6 whole 90-minute games more than Lukaku, only to score 3 more goals. 8.6 90-minute games!

Further scrutiny would show that Lukaku was one of Chelsea’s most efficient attackers this season, if not the most. Lukaku outperformed his expected goals (xG) of 6.8 and his non-penalty expected goals (npxG) of 6.1, scoring eight goals and seven non-penalty goals. He ranked second amongst Chelsea’s attackers for goals per shot, scoring eight goals after taking 42 shots. Only Christian Pulisic scored more goals relative to shots. He also ranked second amongst forwards for goals relative to shots on target scoring eight goals in just 13 shots on target.

Chelsea created five non-penalty big chances for the Belgian, and while his movement was not the best last season, it’s silly to suggest the lack of quality chances being created for him was all his fault. Despite this Lukaku scored the most goals per 90 minutes (goals p90), scoring 0.45 goals p90. Five non-penalty big chances in 26 games suggest that Lukaku really didn’t have much to work with. Chelsea created 18 non-penalty big chances for Kai Havertz, 11 for Christian Pulisic and 9 for Mason Mount. The fact that the team only created 5 non-penalty big chances for their marquee center forward signing indicates that there’s at least an element of Lukaku’s low goal tally that is out of his control. In addition to all these, Lukaku finished the season with the most goals for Chelsea in all competitions.

As things stand, the relationship between Chelsea and Lukaku seems to be irreparable, and therefore there may not be a world where Lukaku plays for Chelsea next season, but it’s important to have a correct evaluation of Lukaku’s performance considering all the hate and derision he is getting. Perception is often different from reality.

Statistics are courtesy of UnderStat, SofaScore and FBRef.