It appears that Christian Pulisic has finally earned his place at Chelsea, and that his spot in the team is his to lose. He entered the win over Burnley last weekend looking for his first goal in a Chelsea shirt (although he did have five assists), and by the time the game was over, he had achieved a hat trick.
Pulisic certainly got off to a slow start at Chelsea, struggling to find his place in the team, but it appears that he’s arrived now. He’s hitting his stride in sync with the team as a whole, and manager Frank Lampard said he won’t “rotate for the sake of it” when it comes to his lineup. Why fix that which is not broken?
The Blues won’t likely encounter too much resistance tomorrow when they face the league’s bottom side in Watford.
And when it comes time for Lampard to select his team, Pulisic should be his first choice on the left flank; despite all the depth at winger.
Asked if the American is the first choice now, the first year boss said the following at his Friday media session:
“Yeah I mean the thing with Christian was he pretty much started the season like that. He played the Super Cup, didn’t start at Manchester United, started the next few games.”
“That’s the competition that we have. So people sort of seem to think that that was his debut against Burnley. It wasn’t. Far from it! He’s had input until then and he’s been a bit of a special case, as I explained after Burnley.”
“Short break, big transfer, different league.”
“But of course performances like last week give him the opportunity to throw himself in there. Let’s see him reproduce that sort of stuff.”
Truly, this might be the start of something special at Stamford Bridge. There’s a reason Chelsea paid £58 million to Borussia Dortmund for the 21-year-old. Although there is a lot of talent and depth there, this American is a special talent.
Chelsea FC at Watford FYIs
Kickoff: Saturday Nov 2, 5:30 BST, Vicarage Road
Odds: Chelsea win 4/6, Draw 3/1, Watford 3/1
Google Result Probability: Chelsea win 58%, Draw 23%, Watford 19%
Form Guide: Chelsea WWWWL Watford DDDLL
Referee: Anthony Taylor
Prediction: Chelsea 2, Watford FC 0
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net, which is partnered with News Now. Banks, the author of “No, I Can’t Get You Free Tickets: Lessons Learned From a Life in the Sports Media Industry,” regularly appears on WGN CLTV and co-hosts the “Let’s Get Weird, Sports” podcast on SB Nation.
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