Christian Pulisic tells Sky Sports how he learned from early-season struggles, made sure he'd hit the ground running after lockdown, and what Frank Lampard's side need to become Premier League contenders... (more on stats in link below)
https://www.skysports.com/football/story-telling/11668/12025231/christian-pulisic-on-restart-form-with-chelsea-and-premier-league-dreams
"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 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."
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."
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."
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."
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."
A piece of silverware and a top-four finish would be some achievement for Lampard and this young developing Chelsea squad.
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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