Frank Lampard is starting to run out of superlatives for Christian Pulisic is the Pulisic news today.
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The Chelsea boss sent on Pulisic for the final 35 minutes with his side trailing 4-1, as Pulisic jumped off the bench and had an amazing assist to set up fellow sub Tammy Abraham to make it 4-2, then missed a great chance as he dragged a shot wide, then scored a superb goal to make it 4-3.
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That wonderful cameo helped Chelsea come incredibly close to grabbing the point they needed to secure Champions League action as they lost 5-3 at Anfield on Wednesday. They now need a draw on the final day of the season at home against Wolves to seal a Champions League spot.
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The USMNT star has been suffering with a small injury in recent days so he didn’t feature in their FA Cup semifinal at the weekend, and was left out of their starting lineup at Liverpool but boy, did he have an impact when he came on.
After the game Lampard was asked how important Pulisic will be to his plans for next season.
“Hugely important. He has had that impact. I was here for Eden’s first year and it is not easy coming to the Premier League, and for Eden in that first year it was adapting to the Premier League,” Lampard said. “Christian has had his moments of that but mid-season he had a really good patch and then since restart he has been in incredible form. Only the injury he picked up in the Norwich game has kept him out of the semifinal when he’s flying.
“Against Liverpool he came on and played 40 minutes which is great for feeling confident about the injury and the qualities he has been showing. He is so young and he has such natural talent and he creates goals and scores goals. He is a big player for us so I’m delighted to see him come through fit. Clearly he will be a big player in these next few games for us and going forward as well.”
Pulisic, 21, has now scored 10 goals and added five assists in his debut season at Chelsea and will start in the final game against Wolves, the FA Cup final against Arsenal on Aug. 1 and will do his very best to help Chelsea overcome a 3-0 deficit from the first leg of their UEFA Champions League Round of 16 clash against Bayern Munich.
Along with N’Golo Kante, the USMNT player is the first name on the teamsheet for Chelsea.
