CHELSEA showed why Roman Abramovich is ready to spend a fortune on Romelu Lukaku as they blew a series of chances to send Tottenham packing.
The European champions were a class apart from their rivals from North London, but once again found it hard to make the most of the opportunities they created.
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Lukaku looks destined to return to Stamford Bridge once Chelsea stump up the £100million Inter Milan are asking for.
And his finishing ability will not come a moment too soon for the Blues.
For despite an impressive goalscoring double from Hakim Ziyech, Thomas Tuchel’s side were made to pay for their wastefulness.
And it was the usual suspect in Timo Werner who was the biggest culprit.
Despite receiving huge support from the fans the German, continued to fluff his lines when the chances came to put the game out of sight.
And ultimately that came back to haunt them as Tottenham, who had been chasing shadows for much of the game, scrambled goals through Lucas Moura and Steven Bergwijn to fashion an unlikely draw.
Chelsea boss Thomas Tuchel refused to speak directly about Lukaku – but admitted the type of player the team needs fits the exact profile of the Belgian.
Tuchel said: “I will not talk about players who don’t play in my squad.
“He is a fantastic player but a player from Inter and with all due respect I will not talk about him.
“I think with the exit from Olivier Giroud from the type of players we could use, a player used to playing with their back to goals, whose strength is to keep possession from long balls.
“So we can add this direct style of play to our portfolio and this is the characteristic of player that is not Tammy, Tino or Kai.
“So this is a profile we don’t have in the squad and could be useful but not for any cost and not hectic or in panic as no matter what happens we will be competitive and have trust in our guys.”
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While England captain Harry Kane suns himself on holiday, the rest of the Spurs players did their bit to be ready for the start of the season – though they often looked toothless in attack.
And it was no surprise when Ziyech opened the scoring on 15 minutes from the edge of the area after N’Golo Kante had robbed Moura in midfield.
Ziyech then doubled the lead early in the second half, shooting into the far corner after good build-up play from Kai Havertz and Marcos Alonso.
Then Werner squandered a great chance to score when he dragged a shot wide from 12-yards, having earlier had a goal disallowed for offside, before then shooting straight at new Spurs keeper Pierluigi Gollini.
Sub Christian Pulisic also missed another opportunity, and Spurs pulled a goal back when Moura’s shot deflected off Toni Rudiger and looped into the net.
Ruben Loftus-Cheek then tested Gollini with a decent effort after beating two men.
But Spurs snatched an equaliser when Bergwijn fired low under Eduard Mendy.
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