"I
always had that mindset: it was going to start back up and I was going to be
ready."
Christian Pulisic has hit the ground running since the Premier League
restart. Arguably the form player in the top flight since football resumed,
the Chelsea attacker has scored three goals, won two penalties, and helped
the Blues up to third in the table.
Speaking with Sky Sports last week, his manager Frank Lampard praised the
21-year-old's attitude. "He's come back really hungry," said the Chelsea
boss. "He's come back with real desire about him and a sharpness in his
game." There's no doubting the American was desperate to get back on the
pitch after a longer layoff than most.
Injured in early January, Pulisic was just returning to fitness when the
coronavirus lockdown suspended the Premier League in March. But patience,
persistence and a lot of hard work during the break has allowed him to now
demonstrate the fantastic ability he has.
I was really hungry the whole time to get back and get back on the
field.
Christian Pulisic
"I had that first game on my mind," he tells Sky Sports, when asked how he
got himself physically and mentally ready to seize his opportunities after
the restart. "I was really hungry the whole time to get back and get back on
the field. I was training hard and I'm really happy now to be able to make
an impact.
"I was able to get some work in back in the States, as well, and be able to
continue to work on my game but also rehabbing and making sure I was 100 per
cent fit and ready to go. So during a really tough time for a lot of people,
that was the one positive thing that I could do for myself."
Seeing the bigger picture
There's a maturity to Pulisic's mentality, perhaps honed by beginning his
career as a teenager in Germany, a long way from home, and this is a young
player who sees the bigger picture - on the pitch, in his own development,
and in the world around him.
As well as preparing for a return to football, time back in his native
Pennsylvania during the lockdown was treasured as a chance to spend rare
time with family and also make a positive impact on his hometown community,
with Pulisic involved in a project to deliver food packages to his local
hospital.
"It was really good [to be back in the United States]," he says. "Obviously
it's a lot of tough times for people all over the world during all this, so
I was doing what I can when I was back home with my local hospital and
helping people who were putting their life on the line and helping us
through all of this.
"It's always good to give thanks and show your appreciation to people like
that and also spending some time with family during tough times was also
really important. Being home and being with your family is always really
nice times we can cherish."
A learning curve in the Premier League
But Pulisic also had a point to prove. Signed for £58m before being loaned
back to Borussia Dortmund in January 2019, there were high expectations the
USA captain would offset the departure of Eden Hazard when he kicked off his
Chelsea career last August.
There were flashes of his talent early on but a combination of a late start
to pre-season due to USA's run to the final of the Gold Cup and the
challenges of adapting to the Premier League saw Chelsea's high-profile new
arrival struggle to nail down a starting spot. He made the first XI for just
three of Chelsea's opening 12 Premier League and Champions League games.
An assist in the standout win away to Ajax in the Champions League in
October and a subsequent perfect hat-trick at Burnley shifted the narrative,
though, and by January his injury came as a real blow to Chelsea.
"When I came in, you don't know what to expect but I was working hard
through it all and wanted to be on that field," Pulisic says, as he reflects
on his eventful first season in England. "I thought I had a few good games
here and there. Maybe my confidence wasn't fully there, I wasn't fully ready
for the whole thing.
"But I've just learned and taken every experience little by little
throughout the season. I just want to continue to grow as a player. I'm
feeling really good right now and my confidence is high and that's most
important.
"I feel more and more trusted by my team-mates, which is really important
for me and it feels great."
No time for Hazard comparisons
That scintillating form of recent weeks has Chelsea fans excited about what
the future holds for their young attacker. Pulisic rejects the comparisons
with Hazard, who managed nine goals in his first season with Chelsea - also
as a 21-year-old - but he has a steely determination to maximise his
potential at Stamford Bridge.
"He's an unbelievable player," Pulisic says of Hazard. "It's pretty obvious
what he accomplished at this club and I'm not trying to compare myself to
that. What's important for me now is winning games and having an impact for
my team.
"I'm really happy I can do that as of recent and my style is always going to
continue to be that very attacking-minded and creative kind of player. I'm
happy I can help the team any way I can.
"I want to be a part of this team. Every day in training I work hard because
I want to start and I want to be on the field and I want to create goals and
I want to score goals. That's where I want to be. I want to continue to make
a big impact every week and every game."
Werner, Ziyech and Chelsea's return to the
top
That's just what Chelsea need right now, with games coming thick and fast
and so much riding on each fixture. With Leicester and Manchester United
right behind them, there is little margin for error in the final four games
if Chelsea are to finish in a Champions League qualifying spot.
A trip to a revived Sheffield United on Saturday evening - live on Sky
Sports - will be another tricky test but Pulisic says Chelsea were given a
wake-up call by their surprise defeat at West Ham at the start of July and
are motivated to finish the season in style.
"That West Ham game just gave us that little boost and say, 'hey, we've got
to be focused every single game,' and we've got to be ready to go now and
get results," he said. "They're right on our tail now.
"But there's a lot of positivity. Finishing in that third spot is where we
want to be, and we want to go on and win the FA Cup."
Pulisic says learning from Lampard has been a real asset for the club's
rising stars - "I watched him growing up; he has a lot of information he can
pass on, it's awesome" - and with new signings Timo Werner and Hakim Ziyech
set to link up with the group ahead of next season, there is a growing sense
of momentum in west London.
Pulisic is relishing the arrival of Werner and Ziyech - despite the added
competition they'll bring in his favoured wide areas - and says Chelsea are
aspiring to build towards the high-level consistency of Liverpool and
Manchester City to become contenders for the Premier League in the near
future.
"I'm excited to work with them," he says. "It's fun to play with good
players, it's easy to play with them and those are two guys we know that are
really talented guys so I'm really looking forward to it. We can have a
really strong team next season.
"I think there's still work that needs to be done [to catch Liverpool and
Man City]. You can see this year that those two, especially Liverpool, have
been just so consistent and dominant and that's right where we want to be.
"We want to continue to be that consistent team week in week out, in tough
games, midweek games. We want to be ready and be up for the challenge
always. And that's what it’s going to take. We still have our work to do but
that's where we want to be.
"We want to continue to win trophies, that's always a goal. We want to
continue to be a strong team, contending for that Premier League title."
With that mix of attitude and ability, Pulisic and Chelsea have a great
chance of achieving those aims.
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