Pulisic Scores Again for Chelsea as Blues Earn Sixth Straight EPL Victory
Christian Pulisic celebrates his goal for Chelsea against Crystal Palace.
Kieran McManus/BPI/Shutterstock
On Saturday, Frank Lampard's starting lineup became the club's youngest in the Premier League but the club didn't let age become a factor in beating a resilient Crystal Palace 2-0 at Stamford Bridge. The victory made it six straight in the league and featured Christian Pulisic's first goal at his new home and his fifth goal in his last three league games.
The first half was dominated by the home side, and the young American nearly scored a stunning solo effort, only to be denied by Vicente Guaita.
After the initial onslaught, Palace settled as the team's plan was to frustrate defensively. And it seemed to be working as the half ended at 0-0. But after more pressure, Tammy Abraham opened the scoring in the 52nd minute thanks to some smart team play, giving him 10 goals on the season, one behind league-leader Jamie Vardy.
Chelsea continued to press and search for a second, and that's where Pulisic came in to seal the three points when he picked up Michy Batshuayi's deflected shot and headed it in to make 2-0. Aside from Mohamed Salah, he is the only player this season to start the campaign with five goals and five assists. That's pretty good company.
Lampard took time to praise Pulisic, and after the game, he commented on how his work ethic in training has been a major factor.
"He came from another league, played some games early in the season, and the competition is tough with the wingers in our team," he said to BeIN Sports. "And he needs to know what I want from him in terms of the manager and how we work on the training ground and certainly what I want from him is what we've seen in the last two games, which is scoring goals in and around the six-yard box and showing energy and desire with the ball, without the ball, so his performance was fantastic again today and the only thing is he had a slight injury before his goal, so he had to come off and we need to check that on Monday because the way he's playing at the minute, he's an important player for us."
The Blues are currently flying high and will enter the international break with confidence before they return for a big challenge: away at Manchester City.
Elsewhere, it was a good day for American stars in the Premier League as Newcastle's Deandre Yedlin decided to imitate his USMNT teammate by also scoring a header from inside the box.
His goal needed some time to be confirmed after VAR intervened, but in the end it did count as Steve Bruce's side equalized against Bournemouth. After Ciaran Clark scored, the Magpies won 2-1.
