Chelsea tell Romelu Lukaku exactly where he stands as star handed ruthless dilemma

So that’s him gone in the summer then.

When push came to shove and Romelu Lukaku needed a start along with a show of defiance from Chelsea, the £100million Belgium striker was benched against Lille.

More brutally still, the Blues looked better for it - faster, more fluid and far more difficult to contain.

Kai Havertz should have scored twice before he actually did. He took just five touches to find the net within seven minutes - compared to Lukaku’s now-infamous seven in 90 at Crystal Palace last Saturday.

And, at a stage of the Champions League where nobody is interested in hard-luck stories, Chelsea made sure they had none.

Thomas Tuchel reasoned pre-match that Lukaku had “looked a little exhausted” having started the previous 10 games in a row.

Nobody was buying it. Everyone was still talking about the Belgian’s rock bottom at Selhurst Park.

So fair play to the Chelsea boss for eventually telling it like it is. Speaking after the 2-0 win over Lille, Tuchel explained that Havertz had provided more for his team than Lukaku had been.

He was grafting more, tracking back more, making more things happen instead of waiting for them.

“He really steps up in games. His effort is immense, his work rate is immense,” said Tuchel. “The volume of the areas of the pitch that he covers for us is very, very good.”

Imagine being Lukaku and hearing that. He’d have seen it for himself - just like the rest of us - beforehand anyway. And he’d have had it from Tuchel in the dressing room too.

But it still would have stung for him to have had it set out so publicly in the post-match press conference.

Especially as it remains the case that Lukaku’s Chelsea team-mates must at least shoulder some of the blame.

When he arrived last summer,