Christian Pulisic scored his first club goal in more than three months as Chelsea extended their lead at the top of the Premier League with a convincing 3-0 win away to Leicester City.
Pulisic, who has missed most of this season through a combination of a positive COVID-19 test and an ankle injury, scored the third goal for the Blues, his first since the opening day of the Premier League season. Brought on as a second half substitute with Chelsea firmly in control, the US international was tasked with leading the line in a relatively unfamiliar striker role and did so impressively against an ailing Leicester defense.
Moments after going close with a near post flick, Pulisic found space in the box to pick up a Hakim Ziyech cut back, taking a touch to steady himself before rolling the ball through Kasper Schmeichel. It was the goal that effectively killed off a contest in which Chelsea had looked vastly superior from the first minute. Antonio Rudiger and N’Golo Kante fired the visitors into a two goal lead at the interval.
Pulisic might have had a further goal and assist but for the intervention of the linesman as Chelsea ran riot late on. First a Ziyech shot deflected into his path and in a position to shoot he opted to roll the ball across goal for Callum Hudson-Odoi to score, though the American was subsequently adjudged to have been in an offside position. He would subsequently find the net again off a Ben Chilwell cutback only for the Blues’ wingback to also be flagged.
Pulisic’s scoring return to club duty comes after his match winning intervention in the USMNT’s World Cup qualifier against Mexico. In 405 minutes for club and country the 23 year old has found the net on three occasions.