Chelsea’s young American star, Christian Pulisic, has once again had a big impact on the Blues. But Frank Lampard’s squad was bad on defense, falling 3-2 at West Ham, threatened with relegation, after conceding in the 89th minute. The Blues led 1-0 and tied the game 2-2 about 20 minutes from the end, but failed to score points from a team that had only won one Premier League game since New Year’s Day.
Pulisic had come out in the second half of Chelsea’s Leicester victory on Sunday in the FA Cup due to the stiffness of his calf, but surprisingly he started in this, recovering and building on a really good shape recently. The 21-year-old scored a penalty in the first half – which Willian converted for the first goal of the game – before winning a second-half free kick at the top of the box. Willian also put it away spectacularly.
Here is the free kick, which you must see:
Pulisic was quick, determined and threatening on the ball and put together one of his best performances despite not appearing on the statistics sheet. He was constantly intelligent with the ball, acrobatically placed the ball in dangerous positions and was responsible for establishing both of his team’s goals. Pulisic was Chelsea’s best player on the pitch and played 90 minutes.
While Pulisic was fantastic, defense wasn’t. Chelsea conceded all three shots of West Ham on target, damaging the team’s four best chances in the process with Antonio Rudiger who had a nightmare performance.
Here’s what to know about the result and what it means Pulisic, Blues and West Ham:
What does the loss mean for Chelsea?
The Blues are still the favorites to finish in fourth place, but this was an opportunity to move on to third place and skip Leicester City. Chelsea now have both Manchester United and Wolves with two points ahead, which means that their place in the Champions League is far from blocked. Here’s a look at the Premier League table with each team down with six games left:
3. Leicester City: 55 points, +29 goal goals
4. Chelsea: 54 points, +13 GD
5. Man United: 52 points, +20 GD
6. Wolves: 52 points, +11 GD
Lampard’s team went from a good win against Manchester City to conceding three goals to a team that hadn’t scored since 29 February.
The good news for Chelsea is that the next ones are Watford and Crystal Palace, both Blues they should handle. But the same goes for the West Ham game.
What does Pulisic’s performance mean to him?
Pulisic continues to deliver and is making it almost impossible for Lampard to eliminate him. Let’s recap, right?
Since the game returned in June, Pulisic has:
- Played in all four games
- You earned three starts
- He scored two goals
Add the penalty and the free kick against the Hammers to the win and you can claim that he has been Chelsea’s best player in the team’s last three Premier League games.
It is the hot foot right now. Although it wouldn’t be so surprising to see him kept out of Saturday’s training against Watford because of the minutes he has accumulated, Pulisic has earned every start he gets for the rest of the season.
What does the result mean for West Ham?
This was by far the biggest accomplishment of the West Ham season and sees them doubles on the Blues for the first since 2003 (West Ham also beat Chelsea 1-0 in November). For a team that has really struggled to put the ball away, this could be the turning point for David Moyes’ club. The Hammers move to 16th place and three points away from the launch area with six outstanding matches.
Andriy Yarmolenko’s winning goal was a thing of beauty and undoubtedly earned Ukraine more minutes. Look:
West Ham is far from certain, but just one more win could be enough to bring them there.
