Christian Pulisic Insists He's Not a Direct Replacement for Eden Hazard at Chelsea

Chelsea winger Christian Pulisic has insisted that he has not arrived to replace Eden Hazard following the Belgian's transfer to Real Madrid. Hazard won six

Chelsea winger Christian Pulisic has insisted that he has not arrived to replace Eden Hazard following the Belgian's transfer to Real Madrid.

Hazard won six major trophies in six years as a Chelsea player, and scooped numerous individual accolades during that time. But while Pulisic will now be tasked with providing the bulk of Chelsea's attacking spark, his arrival was sealed five months before Hazard left.

GABRIEL BOUYS/GettyImages

"I'm not trying to fill the gap left by Eden, he was an unbelievable player. I want to be my own player, to look at me like that, do the best I can and perform the best I can for the team," the American starlet is quoted as saying by the Daily Telegraph.

"I'm in an attacking position. I want to score goals, I want to help them with assists and do a lot of good things. My work defensively is important too," Pulisic also explained.

"This team has a lot of quality. I can help with it for sure. From a similar position I can mix with these guys well, we can score our goals and do our thing."

Andreas Schaad/GettyImages

Strong pre-season displays since reporting for duty from the CONCACAF Gold Cup is helping Pulisic win over the doubters that had been growing ever since his £58m move from Dortmund was confirmed after an underwhelming final season in Germany.

It is easy to forget he is still only 20 years of age, and his first Chelsea goal in a friendly against Red Bull Salzburg, quickly followed by another just minutes later, was a source of relief for the player.

"It was a big relief to score my first goals for Chelsea," he said.

KRUGFOTO/GettyImages

"Being a new signing and coming into the club, I felt I needed to prove myself and wanted to show the guys early on, especially my team-mates, that I can play too. Hopefully I have done that a bit and earned their respect."