Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
RIVALS RIGHT TO FEAR CHRIS
ROSS BARKLEY’S Chelsea career until now has been one of frustrating fits and starts.
There has been the occasional excellently-taken goal, an instinctive throughball, a scything run.
But too often games have passed the Liverpudlian by. Too often, under several Chelsea managers, he has been confined to the bench, seemingly not trusted to perform.
Then there were the off-field moments last year – the infamous chips in the back of a cab incident, and the dancing topless in a Dubai nightclub.
That has led to the former Evertonian, who cost Chelsea £15million when they signed him in January 2018, being touted as someone who could be moved on this summer – and linked
A dispute with a taxi driver in Liverpool over food that Barkley had spilled in the cab ended with police being called and Barkley being escorted to a cashpoint to get cash for the mess to be cleaned up. Frank Lampard said that was not what he expected from a professional. After a month out injured, Barkley headed to Dubai during an international break. He had permission to go but was then filmed dancing topless in a nightclub in an incident that further risked his Chelsea future.
ROSS BARKLEY has warned Premier League defences that Christian Pulisic is the man to fear.
The Chelsea winger has been the Blues’ stand-out player since the restart, scoring twice in the last five games, his skilful runs causing real problems for defences.
The lockdown helped £58million Pulisic (below) fully recover from his adductor injury, and Barkley believes he will now be a major asset for Chelsea.
He said: “Since Christian came back from lockdown he has been on fire. He had a couple of little niggles earlier in the season and he didn’t have much of a break last summer before he joined us.
“So maybe this break has done him the world of good. Since he came back, he has been blazing – scoring great goals in training, and now he is doing it in matches.
“He is such a difficult player to defend against, because he is so direct. He is so confident. He is always ready to try to take a player on. He is a real problem for defenders.”
Pulisic, who has been compared to Eden Hazard, said: “Hazard was an incredible player for Chelsea, so I’m not going to compare myself to him. I’ll just try to be myself, and hope the fans like that.”