Hakim Ziyech's late volley was enough for Chelsea to secure a narrow 1-0 win against Crystal Palace on Saturday, but the performance of Romelu Lukaku has been called into question by Alan Shearer.
Fresh from their FIFA Club World Cup success. there was an expectation that Thomas Tuchel's side would be full of confidence in south London.
But the game seemed destined to finish 0-0 until Ziyech emerged in the 89th minute to volley home a winner. However, it was a performance that raised more questions than it answered.
Once again, many of them centred around record-signing Lukaku - and how he was used against Patrick Vieira's side. The Belgian scored twice in the United Arab Emirates but was on the periphery in the Premier League clash.
The 28-year-old struggled badly to influence the game once again, mustering just seven touches throughout at the game - one of which was from kick-off - and it left Shearer baffled.
"One touch, other than the kick-off in the first-half. One," he said of Lukaku's display on Match of the Day.
"There's definitely not an understanding there of what he wants, what he needs. He's actually stopped running at times because the ball is not coming in.
"There's numerous examples of that today. I mean, seven touches in the game is absolutely incredible."
Shearer then pointed to numerous incidents in the match where Lukaku should have demanded the ball and made runs but also where the likes of Kai Havertz, N'Golo Kante and Malang Sarr should have found the striker much earlier.
Gary Lineker then questioned whether the problem lies in Lukaku's lack of movement in the middle or his teammate's lack of incision.
"It's a bit of both. He's got to be demanding that," Shearer replied.
"There's no point paying [£97.5million] if you're not going to play to your forward's strength. It's very frustrating.
"It's clear that they're not working on things on the training ground because they're not doing it in the game for him or for the team."
Lineker himself weighed into the debate and spoke from experience, saying: "I don't know about you two, but I know when I played, if I wasn't getting much of the ball or much service, I would be hammering them. You would give people a hard time."
