Christian Pulisic scored his first goal in a Chelsea shirt today, and he didn’t stop there. He went on to add two more in the Blues 4-2 win at Burnley FC. (For the video footage of all three goals, go to this link)
The most expensive American player in history, Pulisic moved over from Borussia Dortmund in January for £58 million ($72 million, 64m Euro), but he’s struggled to find his place in the team. When given the call, he’s produced (he had five assists, in limited action, entering Saturday), but today brought his first Premier League start in over six weeks. And manager Frank Lampard could not be happier for him.
“I’m absolutely delighted for him,” Lampard told reporters in a postgame media opportunity.
“A lot of talk around Christian for the big price tag, the fact he’s quite rightly a star in his country and plays for the US so well and captain of, so you get asked questions about it. I’m delighted to see him do that today.”
“I know the backstory and the pressures of a move like that. I also know he played for his country through the summer and had one week break this summer to come back after that.”
“Then you get the pressure of can you settle in the Premier League, so I’ve tried to deal with it in the way I see best which is to give him minutes. He’s played games this season already, but I’ve also got competition in that area.”
I need them all on edge, I need them all trying to perform when they get in the team and play. Christian has been doing it recently, he’s been doing it from the bench,” the first year Blues boss added.
“He fully deserved his start today and it was a fantastic match-winning performance.”
As for Pulisic himself, here’s what he had to say about his breakout performance on Saturday:
“The first few months were definitely hard. I had a few starts then I fell out a bit and I had to get any minutes I could.”
“The last few weeks I was able to show that again that I was helping that team in the Newcastle game and I think they saw that and gave me a start today. I didn’t think it was going to happen right away being a big success and coming into a big club like this. It takes time. I’m happy with the progress I’ve made so far and I’m gonna keep going.”
He was also asked about his scoring from way out in the midfield range, a la his manager.
“He was an incredible goal scorer so we work on it a lot on training,” the 21-year-old winger responded.
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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