Chelsea were rocked by injuries to Romelu Lukaku and Timo Werner as the holders got their Champions League campaign back on track with a 4-0 win against Malmo on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
Thomas Tuchel\u2019s side brushed aside the Swedish minnows at Stamford Bridge thanks to Jorginho\u2019s penalty brace and goals from Andreas Christensen and Kai Havertz.<\/span><\/p>\n But Chelsea\u2019s second Group H victory, after losing to Juventus in their previous match, was significantly tarnished by the injuries to Belgium striker Lukaku and Germany forward Werner.<\/span><\/p>\n Both had to come off in the first half and Chelsea boss Tuchel will be waiting nervously for an update on their condition.<\/span><\/p>\n It would be a major blow if the pair are sidelined for a long period in the midst of a hectic schedule as Chelsea try to retain their position at the top of the Premier League, while pushing to qualify for the Champions League last 16.<\/span><\/p>\n Tuchel admitted this week that Lukaku has suffered from mental and physical fatigue amid a draining schedule for club and country.<\/span><\/p>\n The Belgium striker has now gone seven Chelsea games without a goal after starting with four in four following his \u00a398 million ($135 million) club record move from Inter Milan.<\/span><\/p>\n Frustratingly for Lukaku, he had looked closer to his best and it was his powerful surge that won the penalty converted by Jorginho, in the process causing his injury.<\/span><\/p>\n While Werner has endured another difficult season, his injury will leave Havertz as Tuchel\u2019s only experienced option for the central striker\u2019s role.<\/span><\/p>\n The decision to allow Tammy Abraham and Olivier Giroud to leave Chelsea since the end of last season might now prove costly for Chelsea.<\/span><\/p>\n A relatively undemanding fixture list in the next few weeks is the only saving grace for Tuchel if he is denied the services of Lukaku and Werner for long.<\/span><\/p>\n Tuchel said Chelsea were lacking \u201ca little bit of form and enthusiasm\u201d recently after they needed a superb display from Senegal keeper Edouard Mendy to cling onto the win at Brentford on Saturday.<\/span><\/p>\n \u2013 Rampant Chelsea \u2013<\/span><\/p>\n There were no problems in that department as they dominated Malmo from start to finish.<\/span><\/p>\n Lukaku went close with a shot from the edge of the area that took a hefty deflection off Eric Larsson, forcing an agile tip over from Johan Dahlin.<\/span><\/p>\n Quicker in thought and deed than Malmo, it took just nine minutes for Chelsea to go ahead.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Thiago Silva curled a cross into the Malmo area and Christensen timed his run to meet it with a volley that bounced off the slick turf as it sped past Dahlin from 10 yards.<\/span><\/p>\n It was the Denmark defender\u2019s first goal for Chelsea since his debut in 2014.<\/span><\/p>\n In the 21st minute, Lukaku bulled his way through the Malmo defence with a twisting run, prompting Lasse Nielsen to haul him down with a crude foul.<\/span><\/p>\n Jorginho took the penalty and altered his usual hop-step technique to drive a powerful strike past Dahlin for his first goal this season.<\/span><\/p>\n The goal came with collateral damage for Chelsea as Lukaku limped off after lengthy treatment.<\/span><\/p>\n Tuchel\u2019s injury woes mounted just before half-time when Werner was forced off after pulling up while turning in the Malmo area.<\/span><\/p>\n Havertz provided a welcome glimpse of his quality in his audition for the striker\u2019s role as he bagged Chelsea\u2019s third goal in the 48th minute.<\/span><\/p>\n Callum Hudson-Odoi, on for Werner, led a dynamic break that finished with Havertz clipping a composed shot in off the far post.<\/span><\/p>\n Chelsea were rampant and Antonio Rudiger\u2019s muscular burst was curtailed by Larsson\u2019s foul, conceding a penalty that Jorginho nonchalantly slotted home in the 57th minute.<\/span><\/p>\n The second-placed Blues remain three points behind group leaders Juventus with three games to play.<\/span><\/p>\n AFP<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Chelsea were rocked by injuries to Romelu Lukaku and Timo Werner as the holders got their Champions League campaign back on track with a 4-0 win against Malmo on Wednesday. Thomas Tuchel\u2019s side brushed aside the Swedish minnows at Stamford Bridge thanks to Jorginho\u2019s penalty brace and goals from Andreas Christensen and Kai Havertz. But […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5602,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[1373,3406,1219],"class_list":["post-5601","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","tag-chelsea","tag-malmo","tag-romelu-lukaku"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5601"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5601"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5601\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5603,"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5601\/revisions\/5603"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/5602"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5601"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5601"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5601"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}