Our number nine has a favourable record against the Gunners and will be looking for his first Premier League goal of the calendar year if he features at Stamford Bridge later this evening, yet that run has been dogged by bad luck when it comes to the fine margins of penalty-box play.

While he hit the post late on at Wembley at the weekend after coming off the bench in the FA Cup semi-final and spurned a good headed chance in the first leg of the Real Madrid tie, Lukaku has actually scored in four of his past five Blues starts, a record that has been less vociferously discussed in recent weeks.

Weighing up these contrasts and with the benefit of being able to watch the striker in action day-in, day-out at Cobham, Tuchel is of the belief that Lukaku remains integral to his Chelsea plans.

‘We are not there anymore,’ Tuchel said of the forward’s early-season form. ‘He doesn’t have the influence that he had then because it was a very promising start.

'There have been turbulences since then throughout this long period of time but we are trying everything and he has our support to reach this kind of level again. It’s in him and in us. I think he is still at the right place but there are things to improve from all of us so we will not give up.

‘For us it’s clear that we can play with Romelu and we can be very strong with Romelu. We proved it, he proved it and he will prove it if he stays involved mentally and he stays involved in the situation. He can grow from it and come out stronger, it’s always like this.

‘For sure it’s disappointing for him and not what we or what he expected at the moment but it’s not finished and we will not give in. We never give in with any players and he never gives in. We will push him as far as we can and as long as the player stays involved in the mentality that is needed to bring a team forward, he can still be a crucial player.’

So often in the life of a goalscorer suffering a period without the goals they use as oxygen, Tuchel deems it likely that a single turning point could come at any moment, an ignition to light the blue touchpaper.

As Lukaku showed earlier in the campaign, when fit and firing in front of goal, he can be a handful for any defender and those in red tonight will certainly not relish going up against the big 28-year-old if Tuchel decides to use him, a prospect the German remains open to.

‘What he needs is that one moment or one spark,’ Tuchel explained.

‘He would normally be a natural starter against Crystal Palace [in the semi-final], also in terms of the amount of minutes that Kai Havertz played now and the amount of physicality Kai gives to the matches recently.

‘After a period of injury, he lacks the fitness for matches but I don’t point the finger on him. It’s just a fact, it’s not even his fault. It is just like this and it’s in the crucial time of the season where you need a certain rhythm.

‘Romelu should have maybe had a goal against Real Madrid but he was missing the luck. It’s an option that he starts. If he starts, we need him physically. Maybe he cannot play 90 minutes, maybe to put it all out there for the first 60 minutes. This is an option.’