Christian Pulisic has called on Chelsea to show character to pull themselves out of their Premier League slump.
The Blues slipped to a fourth defeat in six league outings in Sunday's 3-1 home reverse at the hands of Manchester City, who scored all their goals inside the opening 35 minutes.
Manager Frank Lampard has accepted the pressure on his future will ratchet up, with the comprehensive City defeat adding to losses to Everton, Wolves and Arsenal.
An honest assessment from the boss. pic.twitter.com/8DI4tL7Ub4 — Chelsea FC (@ChelseaFC) January 4, 2021
United States forward Pulisic admitted he and his Chelsea team-mates must now battle to turn their recent form around – and fast.
"We're in a tough period, it's going to happen to everyone at times and we've been in these situations ourselves before," said Pulisic.
"We have a game next week where we need to start turning it around because we do need to start getting results quickly.
"We'll watch this game back, look at it as a team and see what we can improve on.
"It's not going to be easy but we need to show character now.
"We have some games coming up where we need to turn it around quickly and start putting together a run of results."
Ilkay Gundogan, Phil Foden and Kevin De Bruyne fired City into a fully-deserved 3-0 half-time lead.
Chelsea were way off the pace, with the defensive unit desperately trying to fix the problems on the run but appearing flummoxed.
A late goal for the Blues, scored by @Calteck10! ⚽️ 🔵 1-3 💠 [90+2'] #CHEMCI pic.twitter.com/AAuiIHqHlP — Chelsea FC (@ChelseaFC) January 3, 2021
Callum Hudson-Odoi bagged a late consolation but the damage had already been done before the break, as Pulisic admitted.
"We conceded goals with a lot of counter situations and we weren't prepared to stop that so the first half really let us down," Pulisic told Chelsea's website.
"They were able to beat us on some transitions where we needed to defend better and be a little smarter and then we allowed them to dictate the tempo of the game."
Manchester City romped to a fourth-straight win in all competitions, with boss Pep Guardiola delighted the visitors were able to perform so ably without a clutch of players missing due to the coronavirus.
Belgium star De Bruyne operated as a false nine up front, admitting he took time to settle into the role.
"It was a little bizarre in the beginning," De Bruyne told City's website.
Still beaming this morning! 😃 How are you guys? 🔷 #ManCity | https://t.co/axa0klD5re pic.twitter.com/4brqrcX1JW — Manchester City (@ManCity) January 4, 2021
"I've done it a couple of times in my career but the head coach asked me to do this job so I tried to do it the best as possible and it's good that we won it this way.
"The difference here is when we had the chances we took them.
"I think the years we were champions we were winning these big games.
"Last year and this season we have played some good games but not won them so I think today we showed we can win the big games.
"We're fighting an uphill battle but we're coming closer and that's the only thing we can do right now."
