Chelsea delivered one of its more-clincical halves of the English Premier League season on Saturday at Turf Moor and Christian Pulisic was at the forefront of it.
Pulisic registered one goal and one assist as Thomas Tuchel’s side claimed a 4-0 road win over Burnley. The U.S. men’s national team forward continued his strong run of form for the Blues with a crucial trio of World Cup Qualifiers coming up to close out the month.
Not long after Chelsea broke the deadlock through Reece James’ finish, Pulisic played distributor for the Blues second goal in quick succession. The 23-year-old danced into the box from the right wing before sending a cross to the back post and allowing Kai Havertz to head home.
Pulisic helped spring Chelsea’s attack for its third goal of the match, playing a cross to N’Golo Kante before James’ cross was tapped home by Havertz for his second tally of the afternoon. Although he wasn’t credited with the assist, the USMNT forward continued to play a part in the final third.
Chelsea capped the final score at 4-0 with Pulisic slamming home from close range after an error at the back from Burnley defender James Tarkowski. Tarkowski’s failed clearance allowed Pulisic to swing a right boot at the loose ball and watch it fly into Burnley’s net.
It was Pulisic’s third goal of 2022 across all competitions. The Pennsylvania native also finished the match with the most duels won (10), most dribbles completed (5), most tackles won (2), and most fouls drawn (2).
Chelsea remains seven points back of second place Liverpool and will next travel to last place Norwich City on Thursday.
No coverage of THE story of that game? What should one expect I guess from the oligarch money spoiled Chelsea fans…their true colors. At least Tuchel admonished them. Pathetic.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W6K7BtnY_yo
Fans and TV pundits always seem to over-react to form, and the second a guy on a European club falls off the starting 11 or shows a run of bad form we always start howling for a trade. This is Exhibit A for why you want to take your time with that and why the grass is not necessarily greener and it’s often better to stay and fight for your spot at that level. The process of competing makes you better skillwise and it makes you tougher mentally and that’s why the elite guys are the elite guys. As Arsene Wenger – arguably one of the greatest developers of young players ever – once said: “to make a great player, I take a good player and surround him with other great players.”
It works. Some guys level out and don’t make that jump but as we’ve seen with the likes of Pulisic, Weston McKennie, Tyler Adams, Yunus Musah, and Tim Weah, when you stay and fight with those elite clubs there’s going to be ups and downs and spells on the bench and spells of frustration…but it also makes you way, way better. The more guys we get at that level the more we’re going to look like a superpower.
I think in CP’s situation with Tuchel people look at how Lukaku, Werner, Pulisic, even Mount, Ziyech and Havertz have all performed worse under Tuchel. Now some of that is rotation for all of them but that’s not entirely it either. People saying he needed a move last Spring were overreacting but a year later a move this Summer wouldn’t be.
Great little left footed chip to back post for the assist. Not an easy skill w the opposite foot. He had the same type of pass to set up Mount in the Liverpool match who proceeded to flub the chance. Showed good touch and vision on both.
Good. He needed that!