Thomas Tuchel admitted Chelsea were struggling without a striker able to play with their back to goal, but would not comment on Romelu Lukaku.

Speculation surrounding Lukaku's potential arrival from Inter Milan has intensified in recent days.

The Belgian is keen on a return to Stamford Bridge and Inter are willing to sell - due to the financial problems - but now it is on Chelsea to meet their demands.

Asked about Lukaku after Wednesday's 2-2 draw with Tottenham, Tuchel said: "I will not talk about players who don't play in my squad.

"He is a fantastic player but a player from Inter and with all due respect I will not talk about him.

"Not everybody but I can imagine a lot of players want to come and join [Chelsea] but we don't comment on that!

However, he added soon after: "I think with the exit of Olivier Giroud, we could use a player used to play with their back to goal, whose strength is to keep possession from long balls so we can add this direct style of play to our portfolio.

"This is the characteristic of player that is not Tammy [Abraham], Timo [Werner] or Kai [Havertz] so this is a profile we don't have in the squad and could be useful, but not for any cost and not hectic or in panic as no matter what happens, we will be competitive and have trust in our guys that we can still develop and that we have young players in the offensive part of the game who we demand that they need to improve.

"We are relaxed and very well aware of our situation at the same time."