Christian Pulisic: Scoring Burnley hat-trick 'meant a lot' after slow Chelsea start
Watch the full Christian Pulisic interview on Soccer Saturday from 12pm on Sky Sports News and Sky Sports Premier League
Friday 10 January 2020 14:31, UK
The last time Chelsea played Burnley in October, Christian Pulisic announced his arrival with the perfect hat-trick, which he says "meant a lot" after a slow start to life in England.
The American scored with his left foot, right foot and his head when the Blues won 4-2 at Turf Moor to get off the mark for his new club in his first start in the Premier League since August.
Pulisic will miss the return visit of Burnley this weekend due to a tendon injury, but he reflected on his breakthrough performance a few months ago.
He told Soccer Saturday: "Absolutely [scoring was a release]. It was my first goal and first start in a while. I was really happy when that moment happened, all those emotions hit me and you could clearly see it on my face in the celebration what it meant to me.
"The day just couldn't have gone any better, everything seemed to go my way. With experience of games and good performances, you start to gain more confidence.
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"Having the confidence of your team-mates and coaches can help so much so I think that helps and pushes me forward."
It has been a roundabout journey for Pulisic to Chelsea. He was born Hershey, Pennsylvania - home of the famous American chocolate brand - and spent time with Brackley Town's youth team before returning to the USA and then making the move to Borussia Dortmund in Germany at the age of 18.
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He caught the eye while with the Bundesliga outfit, and was linked with a number of top European clubs, before signing for Chelsea in January 2019.
"I moved around a lot as a kid which I think helped me out a bit," he said. "I've had a lot of life experiences, moving and changing clubs, being in different places.
"Obviously I was very young at Brackley Town so I don't have the best memories of it but I do remember it was a great time.
"It was a big jump me going to Germany. It was my first time away from family, being in Europe and not speaking the language. All those experiences are what I believe helped me to get here so I'm really happy.
"London is an amazing city. Coming from a slightly smaller town like Dortmund to London has been big. Getting to see the culture, seeing how big football is - the Premier League is incredible and it's huge here.
"It means everything to me. To be part of this club, this team to be in the Premier League where I always wanted to be - it's a dream for me."
Now Pulisic is more settled to life in England, all the focus is now on the pitch. The 21-year-old finds himself surrounded by similarly young, exciting players and is being managed by a Chelsea legend in Frank Lampard.
"It's awesome, with me being a youngster as well," Pulisic added. "Being able to play with these guys and all learning together, and we have some more experienced players as well. It's a really great mix and it helps us to learn a lot and we push the old guys too!
"Obviously Lampard was a big player at Chelsea. I watched him growing up so finding out he was going to be my coach is pretty cool. It's been great. He's very intense, the training sessions are very intense too and I think that shows in our style of play - high pressing, hard to play against and that's what we want to be.
"We want to finish in a top-four spot. We want to fight for that, always be successful and finish as high as we can. That's the goal, we want to win every game, take it match-by-match and try to get results."
Watch the full interview on Soccer Saturday
Watch the full Christian Pulisic interview on Soccer Saturday from 12pm on Sky Sports Premier League and Sky Sports News. Then follow Chelsea vs Burnley with our live match blog across Sky Sports' digital platforms and watch free match highlights from 5.15pm.
