Chelsea got their Premier League season started in style over the weekend, as they thrashed Crystal Palace 3-0. The way the club has played since Thomas Tuchel took over, plus the club record breaking signing of Romelu Lukaku, has them as strong league title contenders this season.
Christian Pulisic, who started and scored in the opener, is really excited about about the arrival of Big Rom. “Lukaku’s a great striker,” Pulisic said to the ChelseaFC.com.
“He plays really good with his back to goal, holding the ball, and he’s a great goal scorer, so I’m very excited to play with him. It’s going to be exciting times.
“We have a very good team with a lot of depth and it’s a really exciting team. When you have a bunch of good players it’s never a bad thing so we’re really excited to see how this year goes.”
Competition for places in the team, especially in the final third, is going be very very fierce. On any given day, there will be high priced and extremely talented players who are left out of the mix. But of course, you need depth, because as the season goes on, injuries will happen.
Chelsea followed up the UCL title by winning the UEFA Super Cup, and they began the new term with a clean sheet.
“It was extremely important to start well,” Pulisic added.
“Obviously we had a tough Super Cup game the other day, so to recover well and make sure we brought the intensity against Palace was very important and we showed right from the start that we were ready to play.
“I’m really happy with the way the game went and obviously, personally, getting minutes in the first two games. We’ve got two great results and a clean sheet in the Premier League was really important for us, so it’s a great start.
“Obviously challenging for the title is what we’re going to fight for, but it’s just the first game. We’re going to take it game by game, and try to put a great season together.”
Lukaku arrived on a deal that is just shy of 98 million GBP, which is only 2M shy of the all-time British transfer fee record (which was set by Manchester City acquiring Jack Grealish just days before Lukaku was signed)
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank, partnered with News Now. Banks, the author of “Transatlantic Passage: How the English Premier League Redefined Soccer in America” and “No, I Can’t Get You Free Tickets: Lessons Learned From a Life in the Sports Media Industry,” has regularly appeared in WGN, Sports Illustrated and the Chicago Tribune.
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