American winger Christian Pulisic had a slow start coming to the Premier League, but when Chelsea dominated Burnley last week, the USA international made his mark. It seemed that the perfect hat-trick by Pulisic would be his ticket to keeping first-team status at Stamford, as hinted by club boss Frank Lampard.
On the performance alone versus Burnley, Pulisic deserves the confidence given to him by Lampard, The Sun reported, adding the American's stunning play should earn him the spot to start will Chelsea.
The team manager, however, is not making an easy choice as injured players have started recovering. For instance, Callum Hudson-Odoi is back in top shape, and it will be a tough choice for Lampard.
There will be games that he needs to decide who is the best winger between Pulisic and Hudson-Odoi, the Express said in a report.
It appeared though that Lampard is rewarding Pulisic for the 4-2 win at Turf Moor. The latter will still start, notwithstanding that he seemed inconsequential when Chelsea was defeated by Manchester United, 2-1, at Stamford.
Pulisic has made known he has arrived and is at present a key factor for Chelsea's game plan.
While it may seem that the American's contribution to Chelsea has yet to reach a level of consistency, Lampard said it's natural with the way Premier League or English football is being played. The club boss said Pulisic has been very involved since the first day he arrived.
"People sort of seem to think that that was his debut against Burnley. It wasn't. Far from it! He's had input until then and he's been a bit of a special case, as I explained after Burnley," Metro reported Lampard as saying.
He noted that that the hat-trick seen last week was a huge boost for Pulisic.
"Of course performances like last week give him the opportunity to throw himself in there. Let's see him reproduce that sort of stuff," the manager added.
The Chelsea further explained that he views the dilemma of picking between good players, like who is better winger between Pulisic and Hudson-Odoi, as a good problem and a challenge for the Blues roster to step up.
"There is competition in those places specifically. That's good. It keeps them on edge - it gives me a problem but it's a good one - and keeps them trying to perform to keep their place," Lampard said.
He added that in light of the current situation with Chelsea, the player rotation would not be employed "just for the sake of it."
"I understand players that want momentum and want to play and there's not the pressure that if you have one game below par you don't play. It can't be that extreme. But it's just choices I need to make every week," Lampard said.
