Christian Pulisic has pointed out it is impossible to go through a whole season without a few bumps in the road, and now the American is grateful we have an opportunity to get back to winning ways quickly.

Our loss to West Ham on Saturday was our second in a row in the Premier League, and our first at Stamford Bridge since September. It came off the back of an end-to-end 2-2 draw in Valencia on Wednesday, but Pulisic doesn’t think that had anything to do with our performance against the Hammers.

‘Yeah it was a pretty crazy game midweek, but then coming here we really wanted a good result,’ he said.

‘I felt like we came out with a lot of energy, we did some things well, but we just didn’t have that finishing touch. A little something was missing.’

The setback was out of keeping with our form of late, with Frank Lampard recognising it was one of the few occasions this season where his team had been ‘below par’.

Pulisic, who finished the West Ham game leading the line, is now focused on trying to get the three points against Aston Villa on Wednesday, in turn improving our record at Stamford Bridge this term.

‘There are ups and downs, obviously we have had a few months now where people have said how well we’ve done and everything’s been going great. I wish it would stay like that the whole year but that’s not the case.

‘Now we’ve had a couple of tougher results and we just have to try to turn it around. Tough times are a test of character. Luckily we have another game midweek and we have a chance to redeem ourselves.

‘We want to do much better at home,’ he added.

‘We come out with the same energy wherever we play. Our away form has been great this season but at times it’s been tougher at home. It’s hard to explain, it’s a bit strange, but we want to turn it around in front of our fans on Wednesday.’

View the pre-Aston Villa game media conference on Tuesday live on The 5th Stand app