Alan Shearer has confessed he was wide of the mark when predicting Romelu Lukaku would lead Chelsea to the Premier League title on the eve of the season.
The former England striker tipped the Blues for domestic glory in August after they signed Lukaku from Inter Milan for a club-record fee of £97million. Shearer told BBC Sport : "I'm expecting it to be much tighter at the top than last time, with four teams in with a chance of being champions, not just (Manchester) City and Chelsea. I'm only going with Thomas Tuchel's side to win it because they got Lukaku in."
Lukaku arrived at Stamford Bridge full of confidence after firing Inter to the Serie A title with a 24-goal return. However, the Belgian has struggled on his return to England, managing a meagre tally of five goals in 19 league appearances.
There was also trouble off the pitch after Lukaku gave an explosive interview declaring he is "not happy" and suggesting he would prefer to be at Inter.
With Chelsea 11 points behind league-leaders Manchester City and Lukaku enduring a troubled campaign, Shearer admits his pre-season prediction has fallen flat. "They spent an awful lot of money on him," the Newcastle legend told BBC Sport of Lukaku. "I thought he was going to be a game changer for Chelsea this season, hence I tipped Chelsea for the league, but it hasn't worked out for him.
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"Only five league goals, 12 league starts. I just think at times, the system Chelsea play, or want to play, is not suited to him. We saw his devastating form at Inter, but he was up alongside (Lautaro) Martinez there and that sort of suits him better.
"He's not the type of guy that wants to press and work hard like Chelsea want to play. I get the impression that he wasn't the player that the manager perhaps wanted. I've looked at Chelsea a few times when has played, and certainly there has been a reluctance to put the ball into the box.
"I know they've missed both full backs for a while in (Ben) Chilwell and (Reece) James, and they're excellent at that. So, when they play it's slightly different."
Although Lukaku has not been at his best in the Premier League, he has been excellent in the FA Cup this season and scored his third goal in the competition in Saturday evening's 2-0 victory over Middlesbrough.
