LUKAKU THE LIONHEART
As Jose’s No 9 finally bares his teeth, it’s...
ROMELU Lukaku’s performance said everything about him and this Manchester United team. This is what he — and they — can do when the mood takes them. The challenge now is to do it more often.
This was a game that United deserved to win. They deserved it because they responded better than Chelsea to Willian’s opening goal.
They created the better chances in the second half and, for the last hour, were progressive while Chelsea, surprisingly, were not.
Chelsea should and could have taken a draw. Alvaro Morata had a poor afternoon but he had the ball in the net with four minutes to go and was incorrectly ruled offside. So, Antonio Conte and his players left Old Trafford with something to feel genuinely sore about.
But that does not change the fact United were better. After a poor start to the game, they were a little sharper and just a little more cohesive than Chelsea in key areas. Jose Mourinho also made better substitutions than Conte and one of them — Jesse Lingard for Anthony Martial — effectively won him the game.
So this was an afternoon for United to renew faith. Beating the big teams has always been a prerequisite at this club and here was a reminder that Mourinho remains a manager who knows how to do it. The mystery is why United can’t raise themselves to these levels more often. Too often United — and expensive players such as Lukaku, Paul Pogba and Alexis Sanchez — are too passive in their play. They do not exude the authority that should come with their status, not to mention their ability.
On this occasion, Lukaku was the difference. The Belgian scored one and made one and was dangerous throughout.
Had he been playing for Chelsea, one of his former clubs, the result would probably have been different. Lukaku was clinical while Morata was not.
Chelsea, with Eden Hazard also having a poor game, were blunt when they reached the edge of the penalty area while, at the other end, United grew more dangerous as the afternoon went on.
It looked very different at 1-0 to Chelsea. Conte’s team had started the brighter and Morata volleyed a cross from Marcos Alonso on to the crossbar in only the fourth minute. So when they took the lead after half an hour, it looked as though they would take the game away from United.
It was a brilliantly taken goal from Willian, Chelsea’s player of the moment. The Brazilian with the electric turn of pace picked up the ball in his own half when Pogba inexcusably failed to challenge Victor Moses in the air and passed to Hazard before racing forward. The Belgian’s return pass was superb and far too good for a United defence and midfield which had too many players in the wrong positions.
As Willian headed into the penalty area, the angles seemed to be against him and it looked briefly as though he might feed Morata to his left. Maybe that is what David de Gea thought, too, because the
United goalkeeper seemed to be surprised when the shot arrived, with power, at his near post.
It was through him before he could adjust and Chelsea had a 1-0 lead that had been coming.
The following 10 minutes turned out to be the most important of the game. United looked vulnerable and almost immediately there were half-chances for Hazard and Alonso. Neither were taken and, as Chelsea seemed reluctant to land a killer blow, United responded with an equaliser.
Lukaku’s touch fails him at times but it can also be very good. Here, he outmuscled N’Golo Kante on the edge of the penalty area to lay the ball back to Sanchez and, when it came back to him 12 yards out via a nice pass from Martial, he controlled it well and placed his shot past Thibaut Courtois and into the corner.
The 22nd goal of Lukaku’s debut United season, it was his first against a team higher than ninth in the table. That statistic will continue to haunt him until he does this more regularly.
Nevertheless, it gave United a platform and, from that moment on, they had the edge. Sanchez was once again disappointing but the Chilean did provide the cross from which Lukaku swivelled in mid-air to volley towards goal in the second half.
Courtois touched that one over but could do nothing about the key play with 15 minutes left.
Lukaku’s cross from the right should probably have been stopped at source and then the 21- year- old defender Andreas Christensen got caught under the ball as Lingard headed in from eight yards.
It was a poor goal to concede and summed up the way Chelsea’s afternoon had deteriorated.
Christensen, of course, was the player who erred when Lionel Messi equalised in the Champions League at Stamford Bridge last Tuesday.
He should also have been tighter to Lukaku for the first goal, so this is a time to question Conte’s wisdom in picking him ahead of the more experienced Gary Cahill.
But mistakes from a young defender are not why Chelsea lost this game. For once, Mourinho’s United team found a way to impose themselves on an important match and take a result away from a big opponent.
They will have another chance soon enough. They play Liverpool here in a fortnight.