Lukaku started and completed the scoring against an enterprising Villa team who could count themselves somewhat unlucky to be behind at the break. The excellence of Edouard Mendy and Thiago Silva denied them an equaliser after Lukaku had opened his Stamford Bridge account.
The impressive Mateo Kovacic doubled our advantage early in the second half before Lukaku rounded off another excellent day’s work for Tuchel and his charges, even if the boss recognised the difficulties his team had to overcome…
‘It was absolutely not comfortable,’ he said.
‘We played against a strong Aston Villa side, who were well prepared.
‘They looked sharp from the start and caused us a lot of problems. We had to block a lot of shots and be wary at set-pieces, because they are strong.
‘I thought defensively we were very strong and did what we needed to do. Then in the second half, we were better. We were in control a lot more, we were a lot more fluid and we took our chances well.
‘It was a perfect result for us and of course a perfect night for our striker [Lukaku] but we know we can still improve a lot.’