Romelu Lukaku's £97.5million club-record return to Chelsea has been nothing wanting a rollercoaster journey, during which nobody is aware of when the subsequent twist is coming.
He appeared set to guide Chelsea's cost for the Premier League title after arriving from Inter Milan, scoring three objectives in as many top-flight video games and bullying an Arsenal defence brief on confidence.
Nonetheless, after 4 goalless Premier League video games got here an ankle sprain that saved him out of six fixtures throughout all competitions, earlier than coronavirus struck quickly after.
However few may have envisaged him confessing to being sad below Thomas Tuchel and flirting along with his former membership in a bombshell interview in Italy final month.
The Belgium striker, 28, was subsequently dropped for the 2-2 draw towards Liverpool amid the fall-out from the interview, earlier than he issued a grovelling apology to the membership's followers earlier this week promising to revive belief.
Not solely did his omission towards the Reds at first of the month improve the hype across the incident, but in addition noticed him miss out on the prospect to enhance on his modest scoring return towards the Premier League's so-called 'Massive Six'.
One other alternative presents itself this Saturday lunchtime when the Blues journey to Premier League champions Manchester Metropolis, with the guests desperately in want of a win to shut the 10-point hole between them and Pep Guardiola's league leaders.
Thomas Tuchel insists he and the membership have moved on from Lukaku's interview and suggests the Belgian must construct on his objective towards Chesterfield within the FA Cup third spherical to wins the followers again spherical once more.
So how more likely to the statistics recommend that's, and the way has he carried out towards the opposite top-six sides, together with Metropolis at Stamford Bridge in September? Sportsmail crunches the numbers...
Lukaku's performances for Inter Milan of their victorious 2020-21 Serie A marketing campaign looked like a striker who performs when his staff want him to most.
The Belgium worldwide scored a objective in each Milan derbies final season, in addition to netting towards Juventus, Roma and Napoli as soon as in a 24-goal Serie A marketing campaign.
Nonetheless, his solely objective towards a so-called 'Massive Six' aspect following his return to the Premier League got here on his second top-flight debut for the Blues of their 2-0 win at Arsenal.
Little question his efficiency on the Emirates Stadium - which noticed him internet the primary of the Blues' objective of their London derby victory - was that of an imperious centre-forward.
Lukaku bullied Gunners centre-backs Rob Holding and Pablo Mari and ran them ragged along with his motion, with each defenders ending the sport with yellow playing cards to their identify.
However there has arguably been little to shout about since within the Premier League, apart from a brace towards Aston Villa within the following sport. Nonetheless, there was even much less to get enthusiastic about towards the opposite prime sides on this nation.
He has confronted Liverpool at Anfield, Manchester Metropolis at Stamford Bridge, Tottenham in north London and Manchester United on dwelling soil since his brilliance at Arsenal, all with out netting or offering an help.
That have to be caveated by the actual fact that there have been mitigating circumstances in a few of these fixtures.
The Blues needed to play the second 45 minutes towards Jurgen Klopp's males with 10 males following Reece James' dismissal, although some would argue the Belgian regarded extra threatening after half time and was poor within the first half when his aspect had 11 gamers on the pitch.
Furthermore, he solely got here off the bench for the ultimate eight minutes of his aspect's 1-1 draw towards former membership United in his first Premier League sport again since his ankle harm.
Nonetheless, regardless of working the channels effectively, his greatest probability towards Tottenham was simply saved by Hugo Lloris in a sport during which his aspect scored 3 times, whereas he was just about nameless of their dwelling defeat by Metropolis in September.
No matter how he has carried out in these 4 video games, his goalscoring numbers towards the 'Massive Six' have undoubtedly taken successful.
He has scored simply 17 objectives in additional than 6,000 minutes in 82 video games towards these sides for the likes of Chelsea, West Brom, Everton and United.
His greatest goalscoring report is definitely towards Liverpool - which might solely have added to the frustration of being dropped for that sport this month - with 5 objectives in 16 matches towards them.
His subsequent greatest tally is the 4 in 15 towards Saturday's opponents Man Metropolis, whereas he has managed three a bit towards Arsenal and Man United in 16 and 12 video games respectively.
His worst report, considerably surprisingly, comes towards Tottenham, towards whom he has netted simply as soon as in 13 appearances, with a minutes to objective ratio practically reaching 1,000.
His total minuter per objective ratio stands at 359 towards the highest six sides, which can not seem as disastrous given the extent of opposition confronted and the mitigating circumstances he has confronted, notably this time period.
However a comparability towards the groups exterior of the 'Massive Six' demonstrates that maybe he has struggled on the large stage in England.
In 183 video games towards the opposite 14 sides within the league that season, he has scored 103 objectives, handing him a minuter per objective ratio of 136.7. He has managed simply six assists towards the 'Massive Six', whereas that quantity rises to 29 towards the opposite sides.
Little question this could by no means be a 100 per cent fault-proof comparability because of the huge distinction within the variety of video games performed towards the 'Massive Six' and the remainder of the league, however even doubling the previous figures would nonetheless go away him effectively wanting the latter.
A game-by-game breakdown of his stats this season don't any extra respectability to his report towards the perfect this nation has to supply.
Once more, few may see it coming when he managed eight pictures, created three probabilities, had 43 touches and 11 contained in the Arsenal field on his return to the membership.
However these numbers dropped drastically at Anfield, managing simply two pictures and three touches contained in the field towards Liverpool. And after a slight enchancment at Spurs, it went additional downhill towards Metropolis.
The Belgian did not actually have a shot as Chelsea had been completely dominated for 90 minutes by Pep Guardiola's champions, and managed solely 21 touches, simply 4 of which got here contained in the field.
Saturday nonetheless affords a shot at redemption, not just for his explosive interview in Italy, however to reveal that regardless of all of the noise on the surface, he can nonetheless ship on the most vital moments for the European champions.
Defeat on the Etihad Stadium may see Chelsea completely eradicated from the title race, however Lukaku can start the journey of setting the report straight towards the aspect he claimed he turned down in 2020.
