Lukaku returning to Chelsea 'to prove people wrong'
Chelsea will be favourites to win the Premier League title this season if they complete a deal for Romelu Lukaku, according to former England winger Trevor Sinclair. Lukaku has reportedly been having his medical today (Monday) ahead of a £97.5million return to Chelsea. The Blues agreed a fee with Inter Milan over the weekend and are set to break their transfer record on the Belgium striker.
Chelsea transfer news: Romelu Lukaku has been backed to lead the Blues to the Premier League title (Image: GETTY)
“If Lukaku ends up going to Chelsea, I make them favourites," Sinclair told talkSPORT.
"I saw the games between the two sides at the end of last season and apart from the league game where City should have won, the Aguero Panenka, [Chelsea were better].
"The [FA Cup] semi-final at Wembley, Chelsea were the better team. Manchester City didn’t have the answers.
“Look at the problems that City have potentially got. There are players coming back from the Euros, it usually takes a few months to get back into the swing of things when you’ve gone deep into a tournament.
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“If you look at Kevin De Bruyne and his problems with his ankle ligaments, [Phil] Foden has got a boot on, so they are looking stretched at the moment.
“If they don’t get Kane in I feel they’ll have a real struggle to get the season off to a good start.”
Sinclair's former West Ham team-mate Shaka Hislop reckons Lukaku has improved vital parts of his game since his last spell in the Premier League with Manchester United.
"I think [unfinished business] with the league more so than Stamford Bridge," Hislop told ESPN FC.
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Chelsea transfer news: Romelu Lukaku will become the Blues' record signing (Image: EXPRESS)
"He was a young man when he left Chelsea first time of asking.
"I thought he excelled at Everton and then that big move to Manchester United just didn't work out for him.
"You saw Lukaku rediscover that form, rediscover his confidence, though I never really felt he lost much of that.
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"Most importantly in the last 12 months, the one big criticism we've had of Lukaku previously was that he simply wasn't a clean enough, clinical enough finisher.
"The last 12 months I think he has addressed that.
"He came into his own in that regard and now coming back to maybe exercise some of those ghosts of that failed spell at Manchester United, it couldn't be a better time for him - it couldn't be a better club for him, given how Chelsea have played under Thomas Tuchel."