ROMELU LUKAKU showed what Chelsea have been missing with a dominant display against Brighton.

The Belgian, 28, started his first match since the draw against Zenit St Petersburg earlier this month and opened the scoring in the 28th minute.

Lukaku showed great hunger and anticipation, attacking the space at the front post from a corner to head Chelsea in front.

But inside the opening five minutes the striker had already showed why the Blues spent £100million on him in the summer.

Antonio Rudiger floated a hopeful ball forward and Lukaku, wrestling with 6 ft 6 Dan Burn, flicked the ball on before sprinting past the Brighton defender to the ball.

It set up a sight of goal for Mason Mount and Lukaku continued in that vein all night.

He was a target whenever Chelsea were in trouble and needed an out ball – which happened frequently.

And more importantly, he answered Jorginho's call for more goals with the Italian saying pre-match: "I hope our strikers can score, score, score and be the top scorers and not me, to be honest."

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Lukaku repeatedly held up or offloaded the ball to Mount and Callum Hudson-Odoi with a clever touch off his chest or boot.

If that pair had showed better end product in the final third Chelsea would have been out of sight by the time Danny Welbeck headed in Brighton's last-minute equaliser.

But they should not be blamed for Chelsea dropping points yet again at home, having drawn against Everton, Manchester United and Burnley – the last-minute win against Leeds is their only victory in five home games.

Instead, Tuchel should look at his midfield.

Jorginho was quiet and Mateo Kovacic unusually sloppy. Both failed to get the Blues going with the team instead reliant on Lukaku to hold up the ball before bringing others into play.

And the midfield pair were also guilty for inviting Brighton pressure onto the defence.

In fact, but for the 67th-minute arrival of N'Golo Kante the Seagulls would have scored their equaliser earlier.

Kante got Chelsea higher up the pitch and his introduction led to more chances – Lukaku worked the ball well in the box but his shot was quickly closed down by Burn.

By contrast, Chelsea failed to close down Marc Cucurella and his inch-perfect cross was met by Welbeck to leave the Blues eight points off league leaders Manchester City.

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