LONDON: Christian Pulisic was in good spirits after scoring in back-to-back games for the first time in his Chelsea career in his team’s 2-1 victory over Manchester City at Stamford Bridge on Thursday.
The American’s most recent start had come on New Year’s Day, with a combination of a troublesome adductor injury and the global health pandemic keeping him sidelined for a challenging six months.
However, he came off the bench to inspire comeback win at Aston Villa last weekend and was rewarded with a start against the reigning Premier League champions.
Frank Lampard claimed after the game that his plan had always been to use the 21-year-old as an impact player in the Midlands before starting him against Pep Guardiola’s side and the plan worked perfectly as Pulisic played a key role.
“The most important thing was that we got the three points that we desperately needed today,” Pulisic told Chelsea website after the end of first-ever competitive game behind closed doors in west London.
“We looked at this game against a big opponent and we wanted to win it. We were at home, obviously in slightly different circumstances, but we’re happy that we came out and got a really good result.”
A killer instinct is something Lampard has been eager for his young team to develop this campaign and that ruthlessness was demonstrated in Pulisic’s goal.
The forward charged forward to press the ball after a City free-kick had been cleared and then exploited a defensive mix-up between Benjamin Mendy and Ilkay Gundogan before motoring towards Ederson’s goal.
His penultimate touch to set the ball up to strike was exquisite and the stroked finish into the bottom far corner even more impressive.
It was Pulisic’s seventh Premier League goal of this maiden season in English football, the most of any player in the competition aged 21 or under.
“We have to capitalise on opportunities like that,’ he explained. ‘I had another one in the second half as well [which was cleared off the line by Kyle Walker] but I’m just happy to help the team out by scoring. We needed it and we’re just happy to get the three points,” he said. (Source: chelseafc.com)
