Chelsea manager, Thomas Tuchel, has explained why Romelu Lukaku has gone straight into his starting XI against Tottenham in the Carabao Cup semi-final first leg against Tottenham on Wednesday night.
Tuchel dropped the Belgian striker for the 2-2 draw with Liverpool last weekend, after his controversial interview was aired on Sky Sports Italia.
Lukaku claimed he was unhappy at Stamford Bridge and spoke fondly about his time at Inter Milan under Antonio Conte.
Conte is now Spurs coach and Lukaku will be tasked with delivering goals to eliminate their London rivals.
"It's against his old coach, he's our player, it's a home match and this was the plan [to play Lukaku]. But it was also the plan last match and it didn't work out so I'm happy he's on the pitch today.
"For us, yes [it's a new chapter]. We can listen to this interview 100 times and it won't get better.
"That won't make it any better but we can shift our focus. We can accept that it happened, he can accept that it happened and we have enough reasons to move on, stay positive and protect him now as he's our player.
"He wants to be and we want him to be a key player," Tuchel said ahead of the game.
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