Chelsea can no longer leave Christian Pulisic on the bench

It took Christian Pulisic a matter of months to score his first goal for Chelsea, but now that the floodgates have opened, there’s no way Frank Lampard can deny the American a spot in the starting lineup.

Chelsea currently sit in third place in the Premier League, having wrapped up a 4-2 win over Burnley on Matchday 10. Nothing less than a Champions League spot will be accepted from the Blues, who have quite the collection of attacking talent at new manager Frank Lampard’s disposal.

Perhaps the depth of options prevented Christian Pulisic from finding a regular spot in the starting lineup, but even those excuses weren’t good enough for Chelsea fans or fans of the United States Men’s National Team. Pulisic had inexplicably made no appearances in the starting lineup in the months of September and October, playing a total of 36 Premier League minutes across two October appearances. He had an assist against Southampton in one of those games.

But on Matchday 10 against Burnley, the floodgates opened for Pulisic. He scored two goals in the first half, headed home a third goal in the 56th minute, and finished his first start since Aug. 31 with a perfect hat-trick — the first of its kind for Chelsea since Didier Drogba accomplished the feat nearly 10 years earlier.

Chelsea have high-quality wide players like Willian, Callum Hudson-Odoi, and Pedro in the squad, but they purchased Pulisic for a cool 73 million dollars from Borussia Dortmund last season in the hopes that he’d be a superstar player one day.

While Pulisic can lack consistency and will occasionally produce games where he seems anonymous, the man also has the quality to score buckets of goals. With his pace, acceleration, finishing ability, and eye for a killer pass, Pulisic is a game-changing talent who needs to be in Chelsea’s starting lineup often. While Lampard would be wise to rotate other players and should value the likes of Hudson-Odoi and Willian highly, Pulisic is too good to leave on the bench.

And based on how much they have invested in him, Chelsea envision the American as a future building block for the team. They can’t get the most out of Pulisic if they don’t play him and take the lumps, especially since those “off” games are far outweighed by masterful performances like this one.

Pulisic now has three goals and two assists in his first Premier League season, showing that he can take on the pressure of playing for Chelsea. Of course, he was used to the pressure as a teenage phenom scoring Champions League goals for Germany’s second-best team in Borussia Dortmund, but there’s something extra about being tabbed as Eden Hazard’s replacement.

A perfect hat-trick is a dream moment that many players simply never have at the highest level, but Pulisic has done it just months into his Chelsea career. Though Pulisic has fought through the usual issues with adjusting to a new club, manager, role, and league, this hat trick is a testament to his quality and the upside he brings to the table for Chelsea.

Pulisic can join Tammy Abraham as players who give the Blues real goal-scoring power, and it’s high time Lampard realized that he can’t afford to bench a player as electrifying and athletic as the 70 million dollar man.