Christian Pulisic scored a perfect hat trick as Chelsea picked up its seventh-straight win in all competitions with a 4-2 defeat of Burnley at Turf Moor on Saturday.
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Willian also scored for the Blues, who will finish the weekend in fourth place with 20 points.
Pulisic’s hat trick makes him the youngest hat trick scorer in Chelsea history.
Dwight McNeil and Jay Rodriguez scored in the final five minutes for the Clarets.
Three things we learned
1. Pulisic’s primal scream of relief heard across the ocean: Here’s the bell ringer, Christian Pulisic’s first Premier League goal. The Yanks’ 21-year-old scored his first Premier League goal in a matching minute,, seizing on a bad touch from Matthew Lowton and dribbling James Tarkowski before rolling a low shot across goal past Nick Pope. A quality strike to beat two quality players.
He let out of a primal scream in celebration as he waited for his teammates to join the celebration. All things considered, it’s difficult to imagine how good the moment felt for the USMNT’s top man. He’d add a second by cooking Tarkowski to his other side and getting a deflection, and had three key passes in an incredible first half.
The third came in the second half with a nice header, and the opened floodgates were greeted with relief by so many in Chelsea blue and beyond.
6 - Christian Pulisic is the sixth different American player to score 2+ goals in a Premier League game, after Roy Wegerle, Joe-Max Moore, Claudio Reyna, Brian McBride and Clint Dempsey. Doodles. #BURCHE pic.twitter.com/wJcvYNCvJz
— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) October 26, 2019
2. Burnley broken down: The Clarets entered the day having kept clean sheets in three of four matches at home this season. The fourth was a 3-0 loss to Liverpool, and Chelsea made sure that it showed its Top Four acumen. Lowton’s giveaway on Pulisic’s first goal was poor and the second came via deflection, but Burnley’s fight back after halftime was brief. Chelsea controlled the match and you’d hate to bear the brunt of what Sean Dyche will likely bring to the post match team talk.
3. Rodriguez scores stunning consolation goal: Pulisic wasn’t perfect, as he gave away the ball that led to Burnley’s goal with five minutes to play. And what a goal it was, as Rodriguez struck a swerving rocket from distance to flummox Arrizabalaga. What a hit. Memories in style and meaning of Daniel Williams for the USMNT against Brazil.
Fair play, @JayRodriguez9 👏 pic.twitter.com/mHKix3fFlT
— NBC Sports Soccer (@NBCSportsSoccer) October 26, 2019
Man of the Match: Are you serious?
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Despite an early injury which appeared to be to his head, Chelsea’s Kurt Zouma made a nice clearance of a dangerously swung corner in the 13th minute.
Pulisic scored his first Premier League goal when he seized on that turnover and used his pace and craft to roll a shot past Pope.
That snapped Burnley to life, and Kepa Arrizabalaga was necessary in a sequence which saw the backstop paw away a shot through traffic.
Ashley Barnes badly missed a back post header which should’ve tied things up in the 30th minute.
Pulisic got his second with another powerful dribble through the heart of the attacking third, getting past Tarkowski and hitting a shot that took a turn off Ben Mee for 2-0.
Burnley came out of the dressing room with vigor. Barnes butchered a point blank chance to make it 2-1 in the 50th, the poacher not ready for prime time, and Jay Rodriguez sent a shot into the arms of Kepa Arrizabalaga.
That’s when Pulisic got his hat trick. After Burnley rejected a corner kick back to the taker, Mason Mount swept another cross into the mix and the American nodded it home.
Willian soon got in on the action with a low shot from the right, and Chelsea was home free.
Rodriguez scored his sensational goal off a Pulisic turnover, and McNeil’s heavily-deflected shot made it 4-2 with two minutes left.