We complete our series looking at breakthrough seasons for rising young stars at Chelsea in 2019/20 with Christian Pulisic’s brilliant first campaign in England.
As Chelsea’s only new signing of the summer, Pulisic had to deal with plenty of pressure as he adapted to life in the Premier League, but Frank Lampard eased him into the action in the early months of the season as he got to grips with life and football in a new country.
Despite an eye-catching performance in the UEFA Super Cup, it was in October that it really became clear what he could offer the team. After impressing from the bench, Pulisic was brought into the starting line-up for our visit to Burnley and announced his arrival in style by scoring a perfect hat-trick – one goal each with both feet and his head.
He followed it up by hitting the net in our next two Premier League fixtures, against Watford and Crystal Palace, and then got his first European goal for the club. By the end of 2019 he was looking like an established member of the side as he became a reliable source of both goals and assists, but an injury meant the draw with Brighton on New Year’s Day would be his last appearance until football restarted in June after lockdown.
However, when he did return it was in his best form yet for Chelsea, arguably our and the Premier League’s stand-out performer of those frantic last two months of the season. He scored five times and set up four for his team-mates during that period to take his totals for his debut campaign in England to 11 goals and 10 assists. They included the openers in our first two games of the restart to help us hit the ground running in the race for a top-four finish and a fine goal in the FA Cup final.
You can watch the best bits of Pulisic’s breakthrough 2019/20 campaign above and test your knowledge of his first Premier League season in the quiz below.
Read the Breakthrough Series for Mason Mount, Tammy Abraham and Reece James