Chelsea win Pulisic battle

Chelsea have beaten off competition from Liverpool and Arsenal to sign Christian Pulisic from Bundesliga leaders Borussia Dortmund.

The USA international will remain on loan at BVB until the end of the season as they bid to end Bayern Munich’s domestic dominance in Germany.

Dortmund hold a six-point lead over Bayern at the mid-point in the season, which will resume this month after the winter break.

Chelsea have paid 64million euros [£58m] to snare the 20-year-old, who was due to enter the final year of his Dortmund deal at the end of the current campaign.

“It was always Christian’s dream to play in the Premier League,” said Borussia Dortmund director Michael Zorc.

“That certainly has to do with his American background, and as a result we were unable to extend his contract. “Against this background, we have decided to accept an extremely lucrative bid by Chelsea, given the low contract maturity.”

Chelsea are 1.20 to claim a Premier League top four finish and are 1.70 to beat Southampton with a -1 handicap on Wednesday night.

There has been speculation Chelsea could lose star man Eden Hazard in the summer as Real Madrid continue to be linked with the Belgian international.

Pulisic could be viewed as a potential replacement for Hazard, who is under contract at Stamford Bridge until 2020, although the Blues are still hopeful the forward will agree to a new deal in London.