With the Blues’ victory mathematically securing Premier League glory for Liverpool, attention was diverted post-match from the match itself and focused largely instead on the excitement of the Reds’ victory and ensuing celebrations from the Liverpool squad and fans on Merseyside.
Analysis of the merits of Chelsea’s victory over City went under the radar, especially the performance of American player, Christian Pulisic.
The winger is back now fully fit and he capably demonstrated in the match why Chelsea forked over £50m to sign him from Borussia Dortmund.
Pulisic got the proceedings going with a rapid fire start, scoring the opening goal of the game when he shrewdly and intuitively capitalised on a mistake from Benjamin Mendy and nailed the target with his surefire shot.
The agile youngster has now eight goals and six assists in 25 games in all competitions in 2019/20 to his credit, therein marking an impressive return in a debut season disrupted by serious injury.
Watching his slick moves it somehow invites comparisons with the silky moves of a former Blues player who has since moved on to Real Madrid, Eden Hazard.
The 21-year-old Pulisic, like the former Chelsea superstar, seems to be possess similar abilities to create and influence the nuances of the game whenever the ball is at his feet.
Granted for now he’s not always able to sidestep three defenders converging on him, but the way he always looks forward and to commit opposing players into a tackle is truly reminiscent of Hazard’s style of play.
And while Hazard is in no way slow, Pulisic’s speed is undoubtedly up the chart with the quickest of players. A look at how he exploded in unstoppable style past Mendy for the opening goal aptly testifies to his speed that he seems to be able to conjure up in the whisker of any moment when needed .
The onus will now be on manager Frank Lampard to focus on building a team that, besides other aims, will be streamlined hopefully also to suit Pulisic’s open and direct playing style.
No doubt at all he will most surely need players at his level to link up with. In facilitating this, the impending arrivals of Timo Werner and Hakim Ziyech should certainly help the American’s cause.
The new and regalvanised of Frank Lampard’s Chelsea with the explosive and riveting talents of young guns like Pulisic and Billy Gilmour promise to be a serious problem in 2020/21 to pose a major challenge to the likes of Liverpool and Manchester City.