“Pulisic, to me, is the next world star in the Premier League."
When it comes to getting a true compliment out of Gary Neville, this is about as good as it comes. For Christian Pulisic it was a massive moment: The USMNT star had come to the Premier League, took his time at the start and then truly burst onto the scene.
Neville's faith wasn't misplaced either. The 21 year-old had just registered the best goals and assists per90 tally of any player in the league his age or younger with more than 1,500 minutes. In effect, nobody in his circumstances was performing better. With nine goals he was the club's second top scorer that season behind Tammy Abraham.
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For Pulisic, who had agreed to move to London in January 2019 when the club were managed by Maurizio Sarri, it was a big moment. He was being talked about as one of the best wingers in the league despite his age and quickly rewarded those putting faith in him, scoring a hat-trick against Burnley to truly announce himself.
Up to this point the American was more of a social media sensation in England than an established presence. Clips of his performances against Real Madrid in the Champions League would do the rounds. Here was a fresh faced teenager from USA ready to take the step up to a higher level than anyone from his country previously, and do it earlier than those as well.
In all competitions Pulisic ended the season with 21 goal contributions from 34 games, a goal or assist every 111 minutes. Since then he has 15 goals and 11 assists in 106 games. The kick-on never truly came despite flashes of brilliance. He is now a much more important player and driver of performances for his country than he is for his club.
With Frank Lampard returning, though it is hard not to remember just how scintilating the winger was. In the first stage of lockdown football he scored four goals and assisted four in a nine game run that took Chelsea into the Champions League - a competition he would go on to play an important role in one year later.
It was a burst of form not seen or expected. Before that run he had five goals and two assists in 17 games, outside of the Burnley game it was four contributions in 16. That reflected accurately his early performances too. Pulisic was relied upon to replace Eden Hazard on the left wing and it was a big ask.
The Belgian had just left England with one of the best individual seasons produced in recent memory. He was an established player on the big stage that carried Sarri's Chelsea into Europe the season before. Pulisic joined up with a Hazardless-Chelsea, signed as the exciting £54m man.
He came in with more experience than Mason Mount, Tammy Abraham, Fikayo Tomori or Reece James on the big stage and was expected to bring results equal to that of his promise. There were flashes. His speed and agility from wide saw him labelled as the toughest opponent that Joao Cancelo had faced at Manchester City.
Lockdown came, Pulisic had time to settle - albeit in a strange world - and he produced a run of games that nobody had predicted. Prior to the break from football he had missed nine of the last ten League games with injury. He started the first game back on the bench.
A little over five week later and he was the player to watch. "You saw glimpses of it pre-lockdown and glimpses when he played an international game at Wembley two years ago," Neville said. “I’ve watched him develop and become a player,” Tony Cascarino told talkSPORT at the time too.
“I looked at Hazard’s stats – first season, nine Premier League goals in his very first season, the 2012-13 season for Chelsea. I keep thinking: ‘Was Hazard as good as Pulisic has been?’ Pulisic has been out of the team at times through injury, he was brilliant in the Super Cup against Liverpool, but I think he has progressed into a player.
“He has got nine Premier League goals as well this season. I think Pulisic is going to be one hell of a player. He has got one advantage over Hazard, because Hazard was at Chelsea for a long time and over those years there were a few dips and sometimes he looked out of shape. Pulisic is a total pro, everything about him is professional.
“His pathway has been planned, from his parents down to him. The clubs, to get him to the Holy Grail of the Premier League, it’s all been programmed in a bit like an android, robot sort of form. Boy is he dangerous. If he stays in England for five, six, seven years for Chelsea, I think he’ll prove to be better than Hazard, and that’s a big call.”
It was more than just his numbers creating that tag, too. His playing style, dribbling aesthetics and sheer pace all mirrored Hazard's jinxing image. He only played for half an hour at Anfield on that remarkable run but it was one of the best displays from a Chelsea player that entire season.
Everytime he got the ball he looked like he was leading the team with him. From the left hand-side he dribbled inward without fear, taking on the Liverpool defence that had long been crowned champions at this point. It was, simply, exceptional.
He ended the season so well it looked all set for him to continue the form well into the 2020/21 campaign, beating off the comparisons with Marcus Rashford and Nicholas Pepe. Now in 2023 and he's certainly not come last in that debate but Rashford has 47 league goals since Pulisic's debut and the American has just 20.
“We talk about Pulisic. You talk about like you want more from him," Neville said over the summer after Manchester United were linked with taking him on loan. "He has got massive talent, he can go past players like they are not there, but you feel like he always falls short when it matters.”
He has, in a volatile and every-changing Chelsea team, never asserted himself to this extent again. Always chasing rather than setting, Pulisic's rhythm was off-set later that year when he went off injured in the FA Cup final after opening the scoring. That, in retrospect, appears to be the moment things changed.
When Pulisic returned for the next season he was in competition with Timo Werner, Kai Havertz and Hakim Ziyech. Just like this season under Graham Potter, he has come back into a squad packed full of players seen as more desireable.
In another world he has continued on to become the global star Neville predicted, but here under Lampard one more he has a maximum of nine league games and two Champions League ties against Real Madrid to prove to the club why he should be part of the squad moving forward.
If he can produce for Lampard again and replicate anything close to that lockdown period then there's still a chance. Anything else and it may well be a case of what-if for Pulisic at Stamford Bridge.
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