MANCHESTER, England — Christian Pulisic made his Chelsea debut Sunday in its season-opening 4-0 loss at Manchester United.

Pulisic came on in the 58th minute of the English Premier League match at Old Trafford, replacing Ross Barkley.

The midfielder did not make an impact as the Blues were losing 1-0 when he entered the game. The hosts extended their lead to 3-0 by the 65th minute.

Despite the bumpy result and performance, Chelsea manager Frank Lampard saw an upside to the 20-year-old Pulisic, who transferred from Bayer Leverkusen prior to the season for $73 million.

“It was one of those games today where I felt it was better to start with Ross and Mason [Mount], who’ve been very strong in preseason, and bring Christian on,” he said. “If the game carried on at 1-0 or we got back in the game as we should have been at that point, he would have been a great injection. In the end it was difficult for him because the game went away from us quickly.

“Christian Pulisic is 20-years-old and has come across from Dortmund and he is going to be a fantastic player for the club, I believe. He has got great ability and you saw little moments of his acceleration on the ball today. But I’ve also got other options in midfield in those sort of areas and I don’t want to stick Christian straight into the fire without trying to help him along the way.”

Front Row Soccer editor Michael Lewis has covered 13 World Cups (eight men, five women), seven Olympics and 25 MLS Cups. He has written about New York City FC, New York Cosmos, the New York Red Bulls and both U.S. national teams for Newsday and has penned a soccer history column for the Guardian.com. Lewis, who has been honored by the Press Club of Long Island and National Soccer Coaches Association of America, is the former editor of BigAppleSoccer.com. He has written seven books about the beautiful game and has published ALIVE AND KICKING The incredible but true story of the Rochester Lancers. It is available at Amazon.com.