Raheem Sterling double eases Chelsea to comfortable victory against Luton
What price a regulation home victory? Nearly a billion pounds ought to do it, it seems. Chelsea under Mauricio Pochettino are up and running, driven forward – quite literally – by a dazzling Raheem Sterling.
Goals either side of the half, plus a late assist for Nicolas Jackson, capped a fine evening for Sterling, who is once again playing with a smile. For all the talk of £100m midfield enforcers, it was an attacker cheap at half the price who made it a chastening night for Luton.
But while there are no free hits for Rob Edwards, these are not the nights on which their season will be built. Most of the time, Minotaur and Goliath win. It is just that nobody likes to spin that story.
Perhaps the most fascinating aspect of this fixture is its representation of the Premier League’s widest chasm – the difference in pure fiscal flex is astonishing. Luton; Chelsea. Paupers; kings.
For those visual learners, it can be summed up nicely like this: whereas Chelsea fans who visit Kenilworth Road in late December must locate their turnstile lurking between terraced houses, Luton’s travelling supporters had a pair of four-star hotels to guide them towards their Friday night perches.
Chelsea have, since Todd Boehly’s summer 2022 takeover, spent close to £1bn on a squad overhaul. They will likely reach that tipping point before September, although there may be a potential lightening of the wage bill if Romelu Lukaku’s rumoured loan move to Roma materialises over the weekend. Dan Friedkin, Roma’s owner, was present.
By contrast, pre-promotion, Luton had made seven-figure bank transfers just twice in their history. And so while Edwards has been allowed to reach that benchmark five times this summer, the player in his ranks garnering most attention was Ross Barkley. Virtually a year to the day his Stamford Bridge contract was terminated early, Barkley was debuting for Luton via a season in Nice.
But Barkley was barely on the undercard. Chelsea’s headliner was supposed to be Moisés Caicedo, a recent joiner from Brighton in British record £115m transfer. His inclusion for the injured Carney Chukwuemeka was Pochettino’s solitary change from the side defeated at West Ham last Sunday, the feeling being that early results had not tallied with performances.
Yet as much as Caicedo ticked along nicely – bar one early slip that afforded Tahith Chong a chance he spurned – at the midfield’s base, and Enzo Fernández, himself a £100m player, enjoyed the freedom a more advanced role allowed, it was Raheem Sterling whose star shone brightest from the beginning.
The first half was death by a thousand triangles for Luton, with Sterling seemingly endlessly at their tip. He looks light, zippy and to be enjoying his football again.
He really ought to have given Chelsea an early lead really, Luton failing to properly clear a free-kick. Sterling made the crispest of volleyed connections from 12 yards, but directed it straight at Thomas Kaminski. Such was the ferocity of the strike, Luton’s keeper did well not to tumble backward and over the line.
Still the wait for Sterling, for Chelsea, was not a long one. From wide on the right, a quick stepover and Sterling was jinking inside Ryan Giles. On the half-beat, his left-shoulder was dropped, and a shot low shot placed into the corner. It was equal parts football and ballroom dancing.
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Chelsea continued to be possessive as the second half began but wasted several chances they fashioned. First, Ben Chilwell’s pressing drew a mistake from Issa Kaboré. A one-two with Nicolas Jackson and Chilwell had a clear sight of goal. Instead, he attempted to find Sterling. Chilwell did not need the crowd to tell him he had erred. Still, they informed him anyway.
Jackson had a volley parried, and shortly thereafter sent Sterling down the right. His low cross was teasingly out of the reach of Luton’s centre-backs but while Fernández met it beyond the far post, he could only strike the outside of that same upright.
As the hour came, Chelsea nerves grew. Luton, and their vociferous backing, sensed it. A rare foray into the penalty area ended with Giles striking hard. Robert Sanchez’s palm, fortunately, was strong.
Then a rare moment: a heavy Sterling touch. It came at an inopportune moment, with Jackson having outmuscled Tom Lockyer and played him through. His resultant effort was weak, Sterling ending up strewn on the floor.
Embarrassed? A little maybe, but certainly not enough to prevent Sterling banishing the memory with a neat finish from Malo Gusto’s centre minutes later. Stamford Bridge exhaled in unison.
The icing on the evening’s cake came with Jackson’s first goal for Chelsea, Sterling this time the provider. Chelsea remain, as Kerry Dixon put it at half-time, “a work in progress.” But they certainly have the direction they lacked last season.