AS Christian Pulisic nicked the ball and ran clear of dithering Manchester City duo Benjamin Mendy and Ilkay Gundogan in Chelsea’s 2-1 victory over the deposed champions at Stamford bridge last month, he sprinted simultaneously toward the City goal and the inevitable Eden Hazard comparisons that will continue to shadow his Chelsea career.
The comparisons began months before Pulisic had even kicked a ball for the Blues. His £58m signing from Borussia Dortmund was tied up last January ahead of a summer switch, and the United States international was viewed instantly as a direct replacement for Hazard, whose move to Real Madrid had long been signposted.
And in his early Chelsea outings, it seemed as though the Hazard hype would be a cross to bear for Pulisic. His initial performances were middling. Appearing yet to fully convince manager Frank Lampard, he spent some time on the bench, only consistently cracking the starting line-up following a hat-trick against Burnley in October, and injury struck to rule him out for two months pre-pandemic.
Since the Premier League’s resumption, though, Pulisic has been outstanding. The 21-year-old has scored three times since the restart – against Aston Villa, City and Crystal Palace – taking his tally for the season to eight, but those strikes only tell part of the story of Pulisic’s redoubled importance to his team.
“He has been scoring great goals in training and now he has been doing it in matches,” teammate Ross Barkley enthused. “He is such a difficult player to defend against because he is so direct. He is also so confident. He is always ready to try and take a player on. He is a real problem for defenders."
A problem indeed. Pulisic’s pace and direct dribbling style have so confounded opposing defenders of late that he is regularly drawing fouls in dangerous areas, winning two penalties and a free-kick for Willian to successfully convert in the last six games.
It’s easy to forget that, at the start of the season, Pulisic was a 20-year-old tasked with adapting to a new league in a new country, such was his well-established reputation as one of Europe’s finest talents and the Great American Hope; it was understandable that he’d need time to bed in to his new surroundings.
Given that he has missed two months of play through injury, it’s remarkable that we are already seeing the best of the young attacker. With five games of the season left, he has already doubled his previous career-best return for league goals. And while the Hazard comparisons are hardly helpful, they aren’t flattering Pulisic at present: his combined expected goals and expected assists per 90 minutes – a measure of his overall threat, as a creator and scorer – of 0.64 is higher than Hazard’s average for last season (0.63 – or just 0.54 when penalties are subtracted).
"I think Christian is possibly more direct in his style sometimes, in terms of how he goes past players and runs off the ball, which I like,” said Lampard, a former Chelsea team-mate of Hazard’s.
Pulisic is doing what Hazard did for us for so many years. Lifting the burden of creativity all by himself & making things happen for Chelsea out of nothing!
— Nouman (@nomifooty) July 1, 2020
"Eden would come and get the ball and take it past players a lot. With Christian, sometimes I think he has the ability to break the line and run forward, which is a really great trait in the modern game.”
For Pulisic’s part, he’s aware of the Hazard comparisons; he’d have seen them coming long in advance of his arrival in west London, just as everyone else did. He doesn’t shy away from such talk, accepting its inescapability, but he also gives it short shrift, insisting he’s here to forge his own path, rather than attempt to trudge the one furrowed by his illustrious predecessor in the Chelsea attack.
“Eden was an incredible player for Chelsea and is a world-class player, so I’m not going to try to compare myself to him,” Pulisic said. “I’m just going to try to be my own player and hopefully the fans like that guy. I feel confident in my game right now and I’m happy to be on the field to help my team. I’m just going to continue and keep my confidence high.”
It is not Pulisic’s obligation to convince the world he is a worthy Hazard replica. The key expectations Chelsea – the club, the fans and the manager – hold of him are independent of what the Belgian achieved in his seven years at Stamford Bridge.
Fittingly, his part in Chelsea’s 3-0 win over Watford on July 4, American Independence Day, further helped Pulisic break from the shackles of Hazard’s legend. Although Mason Mount was officially named Man of the Match, Chelsea fans voted Pulisic their best performer, having terrorised the struggling Hornets.
And, crucially, where once Pulisic’s most important assessor appeared somewhat sceptical of the American’s merits, recent performances have quelled any doubts.
"I keep saying this, but there's a lot of development to come with Christian,” said Lampard. “I'm very happy with him."
