The much-maligned Manchester United striker Romelu Lukaku notched another goal in his remarkable young career to date in his side’s 2-1 victory at Vicarage Road this evening.
That effort, an improvised effort off his body which was mistakenly flagged up as being a handball by the home side after it hit the net, was his 105th in Premier League football.
At the age of just twenty-five, that’s a notable achievement, but perhaps it’s better understood when compared to another great striking talent of the league’s recent past. Didier Drogba, the former Chelsea striker who Lukaku has cited as an inspiration to his own career only managed a total of 104 in his time in English football.
The striker, who has played for Chelsea, Everton and West Brom as well as his current employers is still only 25 years old, something that’s easy to forget since he seems to have been around for an age.
And for all the rightful criticism of some of his showings at this new home in the North East, his scoring record speaks for himself and there is, as he showed at Vicarage Road earlier this evening, an awareness of bigger picture and a willingness to put himself on the line for his team.
Deep into the second half and with his lead defending an onslaught from Watford and holding on to a 2-1 scoreline, he put in a lung-buster to get back into his own half and break up a counterattack with a crunching tackled near the touchline where his Jose Mourinho was.
That didn’t go unnoticed by his manager, who has been as critical of him as anyone at times of the past.
Interviewed in the tunnel in Hertfordshire, he said: "His tackle after a 70-metre run in the right-back position says everything about him and it says everything about what I want from my team."
