Pulisic sets Premier League, Chelsea, USA marks with ‘perfect’ hat-trick

Before today, there had been 149 hat-tricks scored in Chelsea club history. Now, there are 150. The man behind the latest is of course none other than Christian Pulisic, the 73rd different player in Chelsea colors to get one.

Here are the last eight hat-tricks for Chelsea:

Jan 2016 — Oscar: 3 vs. MK Dons (a) 5-1 — FA Cup
Sep 2017 — Batshuayi: 3 vs. Nottingham Forest (h) 5-1 — League Cup
Sep 2017 — Morata: 3 vs. Stoke City (a) 4-0 — Premier League
Sep 2018 — Hazard: 3 vs. Cardiff City (h) 4-1 — Premier League
Oct 2018 — Loftus-Cheek: 3 vs. BATE (h) 3-1 — Europa League
Mar 2019 — Giroud: 3 vs. Dynamo Kiev (a) 5-0 — Europa League
Sep 2019 — Abraham: 3 vs. Wolves (a) 5-2 — Premier League
Oct 2019 — Pulisic: 3 vs. Burnley (a) 4-2 — Premier League

It’s been a good year, and a good few months for hat-tricks, all of them away from home incidentally. Let’s keep it going.

The massive NBC-organized fanfest in Austin, TX wasn’t the only place to go wild over the young American’s welcome party in the Premier League. Incidentally, Texas-born Clint Dempsey, then of Chelsea neighbors Fulham, had been the only American-born player to score a hat-trick in Premier League history before today.

It had been only 42 days since Chelsea’s last hat-trick, though unlike Tammy Abraham against Wolves, Pulisic did not also add an own goal. Pulisic did however score one each with his left foot, his right foot, and his head — a perfect hat-trick. Olivier Giroud’s hat-trick in March against Dynamo Kiev was also of the perfect persuasion, though we have to go back to 2010 to find one for Chelsea in the Premier League: Didier Drogba against Wigan.

Before the game, Pulisic expressed how happy he was at Chelsea (despite the narrative over in the USA) and how keen he is to keep fighting for the club, for his teammates, for his manager. Right words, followed by right action.

“We want to keep going, keep fighting and keep it up and get the best results we can. He (Lampard) says that all of the time, we’re a team, we need every single player on the roster, he’s happy and I’m really happy with how it’s gone.”

“I’m going to keep fighting because this is where I want to be. I came here for a reason, I want to be here and I want to make a difference. Whenever I get that opportunity, I want to keep working hard. I go in to give absolutely everything and do the best I can with the opportunity I’m given. [...] I want to be on the field as much as I can, whatever role that maybe. I want to keep going, keep fighting, that’s all.”

-Christian Pulisic; source: Goal

A hat-trick certainly qualifies as “that’s all”, and then some!