US Men’s National Team international Christian Pulisic completed a transfer to Chelsea from Borussia Dortmund in January 2019 for €60m and he was loaned back to the “yellow-blacks” for the remainder of the season. He has had a slow start to his career at Stamford Bridge under the tutelage of Frank Lampard and the youngster has shown glimpses of his bright abilities and talent whenever given the opportunity to do so.
Last night, Captain America had finally arrived at Chelsea as the Blues cruised through a 4-2 victory over Burnley at Turf Moor with Pulisic scoring a perfect hattrick. His hattrick was the second by a Chelsea player this season and he also became the second American after Clint Dempsey to score a hattrick in the English Premier League. Dempsey did it for Newcastle United in 2012.
On the aftermath of his performance in Turf Moor, former England defender and Arsenal legend Martin Keown was all praise of the American youngster. Keown has been particularly impressed with the attitude of the youngster and that he waited for his chances to come and capitalised when given the opportunity to do so.
“Pulisic, another one of Frank Lampard’s success stories. He has been sat on the bench for six matches but boy did he take that opportunity today, he burst onto the scene, the perfect hat-trick.
“It is not an easy thing, keeping everyone happy, but when they come on and show you they are happy with their performance, it really was outstanding. Off his left foot that first goal, here is he shooting again, a fine save by the goalkeeper.”
“His all-round play is just a delight. He has good movement around him, we know that but in his mind ‘I want to put this in the back of the net and make up for lost time’. The way he improvised for this goal (third), beautiful, too much and it is over the bar, too little and it is in the goal-keepers’ hands. A deft touch and boy he is off and running.”
“It is quite the contrast, they go away to Ajax and then to Burnley and show those sort of qualities, Lampard is growing as a manager.”
Meanwhile, Chelsea’s transfer ban has acted as a blessing in disguise as this has enabled the club to make way for its youngsters in the form of Tammy Abraham, Mason Mount, Fikayo Tomori and Reece James to make the best of the opportunities given to them. Chelsea are currently in a respectable 4th position in the Premier League table and are also on top of their group in the Champions League.
There were doubts and discussions over how the west London giants would be actually performing this season. In the absence of new signings and under the helm of a relatively inexperienced Frank Lampard there were some doubts, but the Chelsea legend is proving his doubters wrong. He is indeed the one who is needed at Stamford Bridge right now to carry the club forward and things look really positive for them.