SOMEWHERE RATHER BE?

Kane must watch Man City title march go by without him and Lukaku’s Blues marriage has run Inter trouble with an old flame... no wonder BOTH have gone missing

AS Harry Kane’s dream move to Manchester City was collapsing all around him in August, Romelu Lukaku was putting the finishing touches to his blockbuster return to Chelsea.

Seven years after leaving Stamford Bridge, the Belgian was coming back to rubber-stamp the newly crowned European champions’ credentials as genuine Premier League challengers.

With Blues boss Thomas Tuchel having quickly identified his side’s need for a striker to lead the line, his club moved clinically to get a £97.5million deal for Lukaku done.

In the 28-year-old, Chelsea were landing a man in his prime – a proven Premier League goalscorer and a player full of beans after plundering goals for fun in two seasons at Inter Milan.

He was returning to England with league title-winning experience from his time in Italy as well, putting in his pocket exactly the sort of medal that Kane so covets.

The two strikers’ fortunes could hardly have been more at odds in those early weeks of the season as Lukaku hit the ground running.

He scored three goals in three Premier League games for Chelsea while at Tottenham Kane, also 28, looked woefully out of sorts.

He appeared subdued that his move to City hadn’t materialised, and on top of that he was also dealing with the hangover from England’s Euro 2020 final defeat by Italy.

Nor did it help Kane that having expected to go from Mauricio Pochettino and Jose Mourinho to Pep Guardiola, he instead found himself answering to Nuno Espirito Santo.

Still, despite his malaise, his slow start didn’t set too many alarm bells ringing given he hasn’t typically been prolific in August.

Unlike in previous seasons, however, as the calendar pages turned there has never been any suggestion that the floodgates were about to open for him.

You have to go back to the 2013-14 campaign, in fact, to find a season in which Kane had so few league goals to his name at this stage of a campaign – just five – as he has in this one.

Surprisingly, given his own fast start, five is the number Lukaku also finds himself on as the two prepare to go head-to-head today.

And what looked like being a battle royale between the pair for the Golden Boot before a ball had been kicked has become anything but.

Kane and Lukaku have found the net so rarely in the top flight this season that neither feature in the top 25 Premier League goalscorers.

What odds would we have got on that in August?

And what odds would we have been offered on Lukaku making it clear within a few months of his return that, like Kane, there was somewhere else he’d much rather be.

But that was exactly what transpired with the release of ‘that’ interview in December, in which he pledged to return to his great love, Inter Milan, before too long.

To be fair to Lukaku, his stats are better than Kane’s despite the fact he has had injury and illness, on top of getting used to new team-mates and to life back in England. But his numbers aren’t better by much.

Neither are having the impact they should.

CAPTIONSTYLE KDahnjsed’ds stats are thsejhmdfohrsedtfrhosuhbjglidnfg-. Hhejsdishjagvsedrhaegrieng a thanks talky goal every threeplus games and has only had

25 shots on target in the top flight so far, out of his

60 shots all season. He has made just two assists – well down on normal service.

There’s no denying his form and body language are improved since Antonio Conte’s arrival at White Hart Lane, but he still isn’t firing in the way he can.

Perhaps City’s march to the title is weighing heavily on him – he wouldn’t be human if watching that wasn’t affecting him in some way.

Today’s game is a big one for both strikers, a derby fixture and a chance to get a goal that sets them on track again.

Perhaps not to the sort of haul they’d have expected, but certainly towards more respectable numbers.

Chelsea boss Tuchel is convinced that will be the case, for both men.

He said: “I remember when there were a lot of critics about Kane at the beginning of the season.

“But in the end, he is what he is – a goalscorer.

“I don’t know it but I assume he did this for his whole life and all his career.

“If you are a scorer at this level, you must have been scoring goals from six years old.

“You just have it – and he will never lose it – and it’s the same for Romelu.

“These guys, at the end of the season, they will have a certain amount of goals. Why? Because they have proved this is what they do.”

Whatever happens, it’s fair to say both need to have some frank conversations, with themselves and with their clubs, in the coming months.

Because changes need to made – quite possibly big ones in the summer – if either is to fully rediscover their mojo for next season.