After starting his Manchester United career like a runaway train, Romelu Lukaku has fallen back down to Earth quickly with a barren record of no goals in his previous four top-flight appearances.

It’s a stark contrast to how he started the year, scoring seven in his first seven league games – including his debut double against West Ham – and he will want to bring his dry spell to an end.

Whilst his lack of end product has no doubt frustrated United fans, with Jose Mourinho’s side only winning once in their previous four matches in which Lukaku hasn’t scored, the Belgian’s disappointing run would have also caused some widespread frustration across Draft Fantasy managers.

He was the forward that everybody wanted heading into the season and he justified that with his goal-scoring exploits early on, but as his goals dried up so did the points for a large number of fantasy teams.

His recent barren spell will only serve to raise concerns about his ability to turn up against the bigger sides in the league after Lukaku had little impact against Liverpool, Tottenham and Chelsea respectively – after all, he did only manage five efforts on goal in 270 minutes of top-flight football.

However, with Newcastle United, Brighton & Hove Albion and Watford to come before their next elite showdown with Arsenal at the Emirates on December 2, it’s the perfect time to get back in the goals.

Two of these matches are at Old Trafford – where the 24-year-old has scored four of his goals this season – and Mourinho, in particular, will hope that he can re-find his spark from the start of the year.

It would be a brave person to bet against him doing so as well, particularly as he’ll be returning to domestic football on the back of becoming Belgium’s highest-ever goal-scorer at the age of just 24.

It was a feat that he equalled during the 3-3 friendly draw with Mexico last week, a match where Lukaku bagged two of his country’s goals, and he certainly didn’t perform like a player in the midst of a tough time.

The goal to break his lean spell certainly won’t be one he remembers, with the ball inadvertently bouncing off his knee before eventually finding the corner, but the old cliché goes that strikers don’t care how the ball ends up in the net and Lukaku will hope it signifies a turnaround in his luck and his fortunes.

His second was far more typical of his character as he lofted the ball over the onrushing ‘keeper, perhaps a goal more synonymous with his early season form, and his confidence will now be high.

That is the thing with strikers, all they need to perform consistently is an element of confidence, and this sense of self-belief more often than not comes from getting back amongst the goals on the field.

There is obviously never any guarantees in football and to assume that Lukaku would find the net against Rafael Benitez’s side on Saturday would be wrong – but he will be more determined than ever.

A determined Lukaku is certainly a nightmare to try and defend against as his past Premier League record suggests, and it would be foolish to suggest that a return to form isn’t lying just around the corner.