On Saturday morning, more than
4,000 miles from Selhurst Park,
viewers settled on to their sofas across
the United States and flicked over to
NBC Sports in eager anticipation.
The golden boy of the American
game was making a relatively rare
Premier League start for Chelsea at
the ground where his underwhelming
stay in English football has enjoyed
its highlights. Christian Pulisic
had scored five times in as many
appearances against Crystal Palace,
and had an impressive record of three
goals in two games in south London.
Before a summer in which Pulisic
may consider whether it is time to
move on, here was an afternoon that
underlined why that could be the
case. The man known as “Captain
America” at Chelsea, who was voted
the United States men’s player of the
year for the third time in December
despite only being 23 years old, is full
of endeavour but far from first choice
in Thomas Tuchel’s attack.
His opportunity, this time, came in
midfield, and Chelsea benefited from
Pulisic’s late runs into the box, but
not his finishing. Twice in the
opening 20 minutes he was given
glorious opportunities to score but
managed to muddle his footing on
both occasions. Hakim Ziyech, the
last-minute match winner and one of
Chelsea’s most influential figures inThomas Tuchel is confident that
Chelsea’s unvaccinated players will be
able to travel to Lille for next month’s
Champions League round-of-16 tie.
Before tomorrow’s first leg at
Stamford Bridge, Tuchel said he
expected that a change in protocols
by the French government will allow
him to select from a full squad.
Chelsea’s squad are not believed to
be fully vaccinated against Covid-19
and they were set to be without
players for the March 16 trip after
France introduced strict vaccine rules.
Uefa had stated that clubs must
comply with local rules, but France
has since loosened its protocols.
“I think the rules at the moment
allow us to travel with everybody,
and we need everybody,” Tuchel, the
Chelsea head coach, said. “It is good
news because we have some players
that are concerned and we will take
absolute care, like we always do, thatif they travel, if we make them travel,
that they are negative and tested
regularly and precisely. Good news
for us. It is important.”
France introduced laws in January
which stated that anyone entering a
sports arena, including players and
athletes, must be vaccinated, and the
government insisted that there would
be no exemptions for visiting athletes.
Uefa would not move the fixture
to a neutral venue as it did not want
to undermine local laws which
promoted players being vaccinated.
Chelsea were at risk of identifying
their unvaccinated players by having
to leave them out of the squad who
travel to Lille for the second leg.
France’s recent change in rules still
means that unvaccinated visitors will
be required to return a negative Covid
test before travelling, but they do not
need to quarantine. The United
Kingdom is on the “orange list” in
France and unvaccinated visitors
must present a “compelling reason” to
travel and a sworn statement attestingto the absence of Covid symptoms.
They are then subject to random
testing on arrival. France has warned
that the rules may be changed at
short notice.
Tuchel, meanwhile, insisted that
Chelsea, who are the European
champions, should ignore the external
view that they are favourites going
into tomorrow’s game at Stamford
Bridge and suggested that his side
were more suited to knockout football.
“We should not think too much
about how others see us as the
favourites against Lille and just accept
it’s a phase where things feel a bit
tight and more difficult than in other
times,” the German coach said.
“We will accept it and this is the
situation for the match on Tuesday.
First of all we play at Stamford
Bridge; we are confident to have a
good performance because we deliver
on a high level in knockout matches,
cup matches, Champions League
matches. We have the fans behind us.
This is what counts.”Chelsea await vaccine rule change
the times | Monday February 21 2022 1GG 5Leicester up the table once their
chemistry has been more finely
calibrated, and they looked to make
headway on that front before half-
time. It was Lookman whose alertness
and fleetness of movement brought
them their equaliser, sliding in on
the end of Marc Albrighton’s low
cross after an exquisite slide-rule
pass from Tielemans.
Yet Wolves under Lage are a more
expressive incarnation than in
previous seasons. Their supporters
roared them on with reminders of
how tantalisingly possible European
qualification seems, and losing the
lead so close to the break could not
deflect from the fact that their
forward play had at times been
dizzying in the first half.
Leicester still just about harbour
European ambitions, and they had
the first chance of the second half
when Tielemans bent an effort first-
time from 15 yards that looked for all
the world like it would ripple Sá’s net.
Molineux breathed out in unison as
his strike rattled the stanchion.
Wolves had ridden their luck but
soon they led again and it was Aït-
Nouri, a consistent threat on the left,
who brought it about. The midfielder
danced away from Ricardo Pereira,
who went to ground easily, and under
pressure fed the ball to LeandroDendoncker, who, with good vision
and control, teed up Podence to rifle
Wolves in front again with a bullet
from 20 yards.
Rodgers played his trump card,
flinging on James Maddison with 20
minutes to go, and Leicester stirred.
There was almost a wonderful
equaliser when the substitute
whipped a free kick narrowly over
Sá’s crossbar, and his roaming brief
across the front line offered a flicker
of invention that had largely gone out
since half-time. But Leicester had not
won in the league since December,
and as they toiled in the rain, familiar
shortcomings seeped through.
Rodgers confirmed that Jamie Vardy
is close to a return, but it may be too
late to save his shot-shy team’s season.
By now the crowd believed in a
home win, and the noise that
whipped around a freezing Molineux
put fire beneath Wolves. Yet still
Leicester threatened. Maddison
remained their hope, and he lined up
a strike from inside the box with six
minutes to go that curled away off
target as the hosts clung on to their
lead. Lage pogoed frantically on the
touchline as the seconds ticked by.
It proved enough for Wolves. Their
European hopes received another
boost, as Leicester’s seemed finally
to slip away.on Europe
TIM GOODE/PA
Neves enjoys
his goal, inset,
while Podence
fires in the
second to keep
Wolves flyingrecent weeks, bent a wonderful ball
into the box that Pulisic, unmarked
at the back post, jabbed over.
His other chance came from a
clever move started by Antonio
Rüdiger. A clipped pass over the top
of Palace’s defence was collected by
Kai Havertz and squared to N’Golo
Kanté, who teed up Pulisic, but, again,
the outcome was messy.
Three years have passed since
Pulisic signed for Chelsea from
Borussia Dortmund in a £58 million
deal, becoming the most expensive
US player in history. Although
Chelsea insisted that Pulisic was not a
replacement for the departing Eden
Hazard, their shared position brought
an instant comparison. Where Hazard
would grab a game by the
scruff of the neck,
Pulisic pops in and out
— and here is his
biggest problem.
Tuchel worked
with Pulisic at
Dortmund, and
viewed him as a
“super sub”. In
March last
year he said
Pulisic’s
regular place
on the
substitutes’
bench was
“a bit unfair,
because I
know what
an impact he
can have in 20
or 30 minutes”.
His predecessor had a
similar view. Frank
Lampard was accused of
anti-American prejudice in
his use of Pulisic, who said he
was “very frustrated” by a
lack of playing time.
Yet Pulisic’s best
period, so far, at
Stamford Bridge came
under Lampard. His tally
of nine league goals and four
assists in the 2019-20 season was
halved during the last campaign. This
year Pulisic has improved, with threegoals but no assists. He remains the
fifth-most expensive player in the
club’s history and, with two years
remaining on his contract, time is
ticking to fulfil expectations.
Patrick Vieira’s Palace played with
more fluidity as he chose to start with
Wilfried Zaha leading the line, linking
up well with Michael Olise, instead of
the trio of target men in his squad.
Jean-Philippe Mateta was introduced
in stoppage time but Odsonne
Édouard and Christian Benteke
remained on the bench. Benteke still
had almost as much of an influence
as his countryman Romelu Lukaku,
the most expensive signing in
Chelsea’s history.
Lukaku had a positive week in Abu
Dhabi, scoring twice as Chelsea were
crowned Club World Cup champions
in the Middle East, but he was so
peripheral and managed only seven
touches — one of which was from
kick-off — in 95 minutes against
Palace. According to Opta,
that is a record for the
fewest touches of any
player in the Premier
League to play more
than 90 minutes since
the 2003-04 season.
A damning
statistic for Stamford
Bridge’s highest
earner, and one
he will want to put right in
tomorrow’s Champions League
round-of-16 first leg at home to
Lille. Vieira’s Palace will have to
wait another 24 hours before they
have the opportunity to end a
six-game winless run in the
Premier League but it comes at
Vicarage Road, against their
former manager Roy Hodgson,
who got his first win of his
Watford reign on Saturday.
Hodgson will have an
opportunity to make a point.
Pulisic, likely to be back on
the bench, probably will not.Pulisic misses chance
to shed ‘super sub’ tag
Pulisic missed the
opportunities to
reprise his knack for
goals against PalaceCrystal Palace 0
RATINGS
Crystal Palace (4-2-3-1) V Guaita 7 (J Butland
45min, 6) — N Clyne 7, J Andersen 7, M Guéhi 7,
T Mitchell 6 — J McArthur 7 (J Mateta 90+2),
C Kouyaté 7 — J Ayew 7 (E Eze 85), M Olise 7,
J Schlupp 6 — W Zaha 7. Booked Olise.
Chelsea (4-3-3) É Mendy 6 — A Christensen 6,
T Silva 7, A Rüdiger 7, M Sarr 6 (M Alonso 74) —
N Kante 7 (M Kovacic 74), Jorginho 6 (R Loftus-
Cheek 74), C Pulisic 6 — H Ziyech 8, R Lukaku 5,
K Havertz 7. Booked Sarr, Pulisic, Havertz.
Referee D Coote.
Attendance 25,109.Chelsea
Ziyech 89^1TOM RODDYTOM RODDY