Former Chelsea player Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink has slammed Romelu Lukaku’s performance against Arsenal, claiming that he, Andreas Christensen, Malang Sarr, and Marcos Alonso should not be in the team.
Chelsea were defeated 4-2 by Arsenal at home on Wednesday night, and Hasselbaink was not satisfied. The Dutchman’s biggest annoyance was Lukaku, but others did not escape his fury. Alonso, Christensen, and Sarr were also strongly chastised.
Arsenal have lost three games in a row before to this match. They needed three points to keep their top-four aspirations alive, and they got them.
Hasselbaink, on the other hand, was furious with a Chelsea team that is out of the title race. And he doesn’t believe they’ll be able to return with some of the existing group.
Lukaku got his first start in almost two months, but he didn’t impress. After only 13 minutes, Arsenal took the lead thanks to Christensen’s poor back pass, which allowed Eddie Nketiah to score.
According to Hasselbaink, the overall performance was below par. However, he believes that four players, in particular, are not good enough.
“If you’re looking at the game they were well under par but Lukaku, Christensen, Sarr and Alonso were just not good enough for a Chelsea team who should be challenging for the Champions League or Premier League,” Hasselbaink told Sky Sports. “I know you can’t be number one anymore but you still play for your pride.
“Lukaku, you’ve not had the best games show that you are the man and really want it. Go and show that desire I didn’t see it.”
It was the performance of Lukaku that disappointed Hasselbaink the most. He knows what it is like to lead the Chelsea line and was critical of Lukaku’s effort.
Hasselbaink was far more impressed with Kai Havertz who came on to replace the £97.5m strikers
“Very poor. I really want him to do well. This team needs a number nine,” Hasselbaink added. “Then you see Havertz coming in, he goes in spaces, wants the ball, running all over left, right and centre, not everything is coming off but he’s trying.