Watch out, Manchester United – Romelu Lukaku has got a point to prove for Chelsea!

Thomas Tuchel can expect a knock on his door between now and the weekend.

Romelu Lukaku will want to stress to his manager how eager he is to return to Chelsea’s starting line-up when they take on his former club Manchester United this Sunday.

Though the Belgian is only just back to fitness following an ankle injury, he’d love little more than to score a goal or two against opponents not exactly in the rudest of health.

It isn’t as though Lukaku’s exit from Old Trafford in 2019 was really bitter or acrimonious, just that he never truly fitted in there after United paid £75million to buy him, pulling out all the stops to convince him not to return to Chelsea.

Lukaku scored 27 goals during his first season at United and 15 in his second yet never got anywhere near his most prolific form under either Jose Mourinho or Ole Gunnar Solskjaer.

There was disappointment all round at what might have been when Lukaku was sold to Inter Milan, with the player since admitting he was ‘in a deep hole’ at United.

What has happened since has confirmed that a change of surroundings was the right decision for Lukaku.

He was excellent during two seasons with Inter and rediscovered his lost confidence – scoring 64 times in 95 matches and helping deliver a first Scudetto since 2010.

It was enough to convince Chelsea to part with a club record £98m to bring him back to the Premier League in the summer as they built for a tilt at the title.

Lukaku started off brightly enough, with four goals in his first four games, and though that scoring rate slowed even before injury struck, there remains expectations of great things.

Having been an unused substitute in Chelsea’s 4-0 win over Juventus on Tuesday night, Lukaku was spotted doing sprints post-match at Stamford Bridge.

Tuchel wanted to keep his cards close to his chest but you can imagine he will get the nod at centre forward ahead of Christian Pulisic, Kai Havertz, Timo Werner or anyone else, fitness depending.

The fragility of United’s defence of late proved a major factor in Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s dismissal and a bulldozer of a striker like Lukaku can definitely profit even before you factor in the motivation of getting one over his old employer.

As weird as it is to say given the size of the club, Lukaku will reflect on his two years at United as a stepping stone to better things.

Mourinho would later admit that ‘Romelu was not the right profile for Manchester United’ and it’s fair to say he was probably the wrong player at the wrong club and the wrong time.

His goals, however, helped elevate United from their sixth place finish in Mourinho’s first season up to second position, albeit a distant 19 points behind Pep Guardiola’s Man City.

A closer look at who Lukaku scored against that year also supports that lingering accusation of the striker as a ‘flat-track bully’.

He did net against Chelsea but the majority of his goals did come against sides in the bottom half of the Premier League.

There was also criticism that he wasn’t enough of an all-round forward to lead the line for United. Lukaku was accused of not holding the ball up, teeing up team-mates or dropping deep to help out.

His style was very much to poach goals, as all good strikers should, but Mourinho was probably expecting a bit more. This was certainly less of an issue at Inter and Lukaku flourished again.

Lukaku’s second season at United was a different story. Not only was there the toxic downfall of Mourinho mid-season amid dressing-room discord but there was a feeling from Lukaku that he was being made a scapegoat for things not working out.

It also took a long time for Solskjaer to work out where to deploy Lukaku during his interim spell in charge, limiting his game time, and things never picked up.

Ironic then that Lukaku would score twice in the sensational comeback win over Paris Saint-Germain that effectively secured Solskjaer the job on a full-time basis.

Lukaku has been candid about how everything unravelled at Old Trafford.

‘I had to find within myself what was lacking and came to the conclusion that it was time for me to change environment,’ he told Sky Sports during his time at Inter.

‘I made my decision around March, and I went to the manager’s office and told him it was time for me to find something else.

‘I wasn’t performing and I wasn’t playing. I think it was better for both sides to go separate ways. I think I made the right decision.’

Having been a Mourinho-type striker, suddenly Lukaku wasn’t the right man for Solskjaer, who wanted to play on the counter and make the most of United’s array of speedy players.

Suddenly the odd man out, Lukaku’s price tag suddenly begin to feel heavy. Like other expensive acquisitions of that time, he was sensitive to fan criticism.

‘They have to find somebody [to criticise]. It is [Paul] Pogba or me or Alexis [Sanchez] – it’s the three of us all the time,’ he told the LightHearted Podcast after he left United.

‘They have to find a culprit. If they want to put the blame on me, f*** it. I know what I’ve been through and this is just soccer.’

Lukaku also admitted that he feared Solskjaer was about to move him out to the wing, something that wouldn’t have made too much sense. Either way, it was time to go.

Now he’s back to face United again and with a point to make.