London: Chelsea's record 97.5million signing Romelu Lukaku, led Chelsea to a 3-0 win over Aston Villa. The champions of Europe share the top Premier League position on 10 points with Manchester United for whom Christiano Ronaldo, returning to his former club also scored twice in his first match.
Chelsea manager, Thomas Tuchel, said: “We escaped with the perfect result and a perfect evening for our striker. Romelu is so full of confidence and fully aware of what he wants to do. He takes the last decisions, he is absolutely confident of scoring, he helped us a lot. He was the difference. He knows what he is up to, he wants his goals to help the team and he has the composure.”
Tuchel went on to say: “They were two difficult goals to score, not easy tap-ins, which got us three very important points against a difficult Aston Villa team. He adds something that we didn't have in this group before. Lukaku was decisive for us. He is not shy to speak about his ambition either, so he has the personality to handle it.”
Villa had their chances but lacked finishing after 11 efforts at goal in the first half alone when they dominated in midfield. Esri Konsa headed wide a fine chance and Douglas Luiz was deflected wide. Edouard Mendy made excellent saves, a double save from Tyrone Mings, and then from Jacob Ramsey and when he was once beaten with Ollie Watkins side-stepping, Thiago Silva blocked the shot.
Lukaku scored his first goal for the club, having left without a goal in his first spell a decade ago, in the 15th minute when he outpaced Axel Tuanzebe, switched from his left foot to his right and hit a low shot past the diving Jed Steer . Chelsea's second goal came just 4 minutes into the second half when Mings, under pressure from Kovacic, sent a back pass to his goalkeeper which was too short and Kovacic pounced on the ball to score off the inside of the far post.
Thereafter, Villa could have reduced the margin but Bertrand Traore hit his shot over and Konsa headed straight to the keeper. Despite enjoying much of the possession and getting into positions to score, Villa failed to take their chance.
Finally, in the third minute of added time Lukaku scored his second and his third Premier League goal in three games of his second spell with Chelsea. It was a left footed shot from the edge of the box into the top corner.
Villa manager, Dean Smith, unhappy with some of the referee's decisions said: “I understand the challenges officials have but they have to be consistent. I have no problem with them booking Jacob Ramsey for pulling the lad back on the halfway line or for the Mings tackle. But if they are going to do that they have to be consistent, when John McGinn got kicked to the floor nothing happened.”
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