{"id":3870,"date":"2021-12-26T15:03:17","date_gmt":"2021-12-26T20:03:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cyberlego.com\/web\/2021\/12\/26\/why-romelu-lukaku-is-benched-for-chelseas-meeting-with-aston-villa\/"},"modified":"2021-12-26T15:03:17","modified_gmt":"2021-12-26T20:03:17","slug":"why-romelu-lukaku-is-benched-for-chelseas-meeting-with-aston-villa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cyberlego.com\/web\/2021\/12\/26\/why-romelu-lukaku-is-benched-for-chelseas-meeting-with-aston-villa\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Romelu Lukaku is benched for Chelsea\u2019s meeting with Aston Villa"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Chelsea manager Thomas Tuchel has, on Sunday, provided an explanation for the absence of Romelu Lukaku from his latest starting XI.<\/p>\n<h2>Blues off the pace<\/h2>\n<p>Tuchel and co. will mark their post-Christmas return to action in short order.<\/p>\n<p>As part of a busy Boxing Day fixture list in the Premier League, the European champions have made the trip to Villa Park, for a tricky outing up against Steven Gerrard\u2019s much-improved Aston Villa.<\/p>\n<p>Chelsea head into proceedings aware that nothing but three points will do on the day, having slipped alarmingly off the pace of table-topping Manchester City owing to a string of disappointing recent results.<\/p>\n<p>City\u2019s dominant downing of Leicester earlier this afternoon means that, as things stand, Chelsea sit a full nine points adrift of Pep Guardiola\u2019s Premier League pace-setters at the halfway point of the campaign.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Has Aymeric Laporte just stopped Leicester\u2019s comeback in its tracks? <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/LxkOhaOsBO\" rel=\"nofollow\">pic.twitter.com\/LxkOhaOsBO<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 DAZN Canada (@DAZN_CA) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/DAZN_CA\/status\/1475142761489653760?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">December 26, 2021<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h2>\u2018Simply impossible\u2019<\/h2>\n<p>As such, it goes without saying that Thomas Tuchel, ahead of the fast-approaching kick-off at Villa Park, was widely expected to call upon as strong a starting XI as possible.<\/p>\n<p>As alluded to above, though, one such key member of Chelsea\u2019s ranks forced to make do with a spot on the bench this evening comes in the form of Romelu Lukaku.<\/p>\n<p>Belgian hitman Lukaku has of course spent considerable time on the sidelines of late, owing first to injury, and then a bout of Covid-19.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_1582052\" style=\"width: 1034px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\">\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1582052\" class=\"size-large wp-image-1582052\" src=\"https:\/\/www.101greatgoals.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/GettyImages-1347745195-1024x683.jpg\" alt=\"Why Romelu Lukaku is benched for Chelsea\u2019s meeting with Aston Villa\" width=\"1024\" height=\"683\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.101greatgoals.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/GettyImages-1347745195-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.101greatgoals.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/GettyImages-1347745195-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.101greatgoals.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/GettyImages-1347745195-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.101greatgoals.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/GettyImages-1347745195-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/www.101greatgoals.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/GettyImages-1347745195-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https:\/\/www.101greatgoals.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/GettyImages-1347745195-600x400.jpg 600w, https:\/\/www.101greatgoals.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/GettyImages-1347745195-910x607.jpg 910w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\"><\/p>\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-1582052\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">LONDON, ENGLAND \u2013 OCTOBER 20: Romelu Lukaku of Chelsea walks off the pitch after receiving medical treatment during the UEFA Champions League group H match between Chelsea FC and Malmo FF at Stamford Bridge on October 20, 2021 in London, England. (Photo by Clive Rose\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>It was nevertheless predicted by many, however, that the ex-Manchester United man would be reintroduced to the Blues\u2019 line-up on Sunday, to act as a much-needed attacking spearhead.<\/p>\n<p>In turn, upon word surfacing that Lukaku had only been afforded a spot on the bench against Villa, boss Tuchel was inevitably drawn on the situation during his pre-match media duties.<\/p>\n<p>And the German went on to cite his big-money summer addition\u2019s recent illness as key, with it viewed as \u2018simply impossible\u2019 that Lukaku would have been ready to play all 90 minutes this evening:<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Tuchel to SkySports on Lukaku\u2019s bench role vs Villa: \u201c90 minutes is simply impossible after just coming back from Covid. We decided to have him on the end on the pitch.\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/CFC?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#CFC<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/AVLCHE?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#AVLCHE<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Nizaar Kinsella (@NizaarKinsella) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/NizaarKinsella\/status\/1475150986335461380?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">December 26, 2021<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<h4><a href=\"https:\/\/www.101greatgoals.com\/premier-league-live-streaming\/aston-villa-vs-chelsea-live-streaming-watch-premier-league-online\/\">Aston Villa vs Chelsea live streaming: Watch Premier League online<\/a><\/h4>\n<h4><a href=\"https:\/\/www.101greatgoals.com\/premier-league-live-streaming\/brighton-hove-albion-vs-brentford-live-streaming-watch-premier-league-online\/\">Brighton &amp; Hove Albion vs Brentford live streaming: Watch Premier League online<\/a><\/h4>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u00a0 Chelsea manager Thomas Tuchel has, on Sunday, provided an explanation for the absence of Romelu Lukaku from his latest starting XI. Blues off the pace Tuchel and co. will mark their post-Christmas return to action in short order. As part of a busy Boxing Day fixture list in the Premier League, the European champions [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[12,7],"tags":[13,14],"class_list":["post-3870","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-football","category-sport","tag-football","tag-soccer","et-doesnt-have-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberlego.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3870","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberlego.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberlego.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberlego.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberlego.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3870"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberlego.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3870\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberlego.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3870"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberlego.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3870"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberlego.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3870"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}