In about 1737 minutes of football for Chelsea in 2019-2020 season, Christian Pulisic has proven that he can become an iconic figure at Stamford Bridge anytime soon. His style of play, how he influences games and the way he scores have forced people, especially Chelsea fans, to never stop comparing him to Eden Hazard who had the best of his career with Chelsea before he joined Real Madrid last summer.
So far for Christian Pulisic, he has suddenly improved his game to the extent that he has become a massive threat to opposition especially since the Premier League return from the coronavirus induced break on June 17. The American football star is not just doing great things for Chelsea but for himself and country as he keeps setting records that might take years to break.
He started breaking records in January 2019 when Chelsea signed him from German Bundesliga side, Borussia Dortmund for a transfer fee worth about £57.6 million. The deal made him the most expensive American player of all time.
Besides that, in that same year, he was made the captain of the United States soccer national team at 21-year-old, making him the youngest player in the modern era to be given such a responsibility.
The Stats of Christian Pulisic Opposition should be wary of
When Pulisic started playing for Chelsea at the beginning of 2019-2020 season, critics thought the 22-year-old winger was too skinny to survive in the Premier League that is known for its physicality. They were proven right as the American captain was badly injured before he could spend up to 5 months in the league.
The injury would have probably kept him out of the remaining games of the season if the three months coronavirus break had not happened. The break enabled the Chelsea star to keep showing to the world how possible it is for him to become a little god at Chelsea.
So far this season, the multi-utility Pulisic has played for Chelsea as a left-winger 11 times, scoring 3 goals and made no assist. He has played as attacking-midfielder-left 6 times scoring 5 goals and made no assist. He has played as a forward-right 2 times and made one assist. The soccer star has also been used as a substitute in 6 games and scored one goal in one of the games and made two assists.
In the Premier League, in particular, he has played for Chelsea 21 times (16 starts), scoring 8 goals and has made two assists. The Chelsea star has scored 6 away goals in the league this season, the most by any American in a single Premier League campaign. He has scored 3 goals in Chelsea’s last 5 games.
Indeed, the contribution of the soccer star has been massive as he was directly involved in 10 Premier League goals this season. Since the restart of the season, he has won two penalties and one free-kick that resulted in goals for Chelsea.
Going by his stats, Christian Pulisic has greatly improved his game at Chelsea when compared with his end product while at Borussia Dortmund. In his first full season, 2017-2018, as a senior team player at Dortmund, the American played 32 games and scored only 4 times. While in the 2018-2019 season, he played 20 times for Dortmund and scored 4 times. Now at Chelsea, with 4 games left to play, Pulisic has scored 8 goals in 21 appearances. This means that the American has already doubled his best ever league-scoring record with 4 games remaining.
Pulisic’s manager says…
“He’s got great talent,” the manager of Chelsea, Frank Lampard said after his stunning performance against Crystal Palace on Tuesday which ended 2-3 in favour of Chelsea.
“He came here in difficult conditions at the start of the season in terms of not having a break but he’s moved his game on to another level – not just in terms of how he’s going by people but he’s got real end product”, Lampard added.
“I didn’t put any limits on him so he’s not surprised me. I knew the talent he had and I wanted to help him when he first got here because of the physical nature of the league. I had to manage him and then, unfortunately, he had quite a bad injury.
“But the hunger that he has, the quality that he’s showing, and the end product has been the most pleasing aspect. Since the restart, he’s been fantastic.
“You look around at the top attacking talent in the world, they score goals regularly that win games and at the moment he’s doing that, so I’m delighted with him.”
