The American got our second goal of the afternoon at Stamford Bridge, between Marcos Alonso’s free-kick and a sweet strike by Trevoh Chalobah on his Premier League debut, as we began the league season with a comfortable 3-0 victory.

Coming so soon after last week’s gruelling UEFA Super Cup victory over Villarreal, which went to extra time and penalties, Pulisic felt it was crucial to lay down a marker with a strong performance against Palace.

‘It was extremely important to start well,’ he said. ‘Obviously we had a tough Super Cup game the other day, so to recover well and make sure we brought the intensity against Palace was very important and we showed right from the start that we were ready to play.

‘I’m really happy with the way the game went and obviously, personally, getting minutes in the first two games. We’ve got two great results and a clean sheet in the Premier League was really important for us, so it’s a great start.

‘Obviously challenging for the title is what we’re going to fight for, but it’s just the first game. We’re going to take it game by game, and try to put a great season together.’

That means while he was pleased to get his first goal of 2021/22, and feature in both of our opening two competitive fixtures of the season, coming off the bench in Belfast and starting at the Bridge, it was the overall team performance against Crystal Palace that gave him the most joy.

‘Obviously it’s always nice to get on the score sheet so I’m very happy, but I’m just happy about the win for the team. We put a really good performance together and the clean sheet was very important, so it was a really good day for us and I’m just happy with getting three important points.’

Pulisic also discussed the seemingly ever-increasing strength in depth available to Blues head coach Thomas Tuchel, with the performance of Chalobah on his Premier League debut, ahead of the arrival of new signing Romelu Lukaku, providing plenty of reasons for optimism for the season ahead.

‘Trevoh’s goal was so well deserved,’ added Pulisic. ‘He works so hard and he’s been in the team for the last few games and he’s played unbelievably, so that was the icing on top and I’m very happy for him.

'Lukaku’s a great striker. He plays really good with his back to goal, holding the ball, and he’s a great goalscorer, so I’m very excited to play with him. It’s going to be exciting times.

‘We have a very good team with a lot of depth and it’s a really exciting team. When you have a bunch of good players it’s never a bad thing so we’re really excited to see how this year goes.’