Chelsea 2021/22 season player ratings: Mason Mount 9, Thiago Silva 8, Romelu Lukaku 4

It was a season quite unlike any other in Chelsea's recent history. Basking in the glow of last year's superb Champions League triumph - achieved five months after Thomas Tuchel replaced Frank Lampard as manager with the club ninth in the Premier League table - all Chelsea seemingly needed to compete with Manchester City and Liverpool for the title was a proven, prolific goalscorer.

In came Romelu Lukaku, fresh from firing Inter Milan to the Serie A title, for his second spell at Stamford Bridge, ready to prove wrong the doubters and finally stake his claim to be Chelsea's main man, seven years after leaving the club due to a lack of opportunity. The Belgian may have cost a club record £97.5 million ($122.5m) but was considered as close to a guarantee as they come.

And how well it all started for player and club. Lukaku scored four goals in his first four games, slotting seamlessly into Tuchel's system and living up to the widely predicted 'final piece of the jigsaw' claim.

But the good times wouldn't last: Lukaku went 10 games without a goal, spent six weeks sidelined with an ankle injury, and conducted an explosive interview which criticised Tuchel's tactics and expressed a desire to one day return to Inter.

For a while, Chelsea managed to soldier on in the absence of Lukaku and his goals, and sat top of the table after 14 games while making comfortable progress in the Champions League. Yet, even as their title challenge began to falter, Lukaku largely remained sat on the bench, with Kai Havertz preferred to spearhead the attack.

The former Everton and Manchester United striker did make a telling contribution in Chelsea's one major trophy of the season, scoring in both games at the Club World Cup, but his form in Abu