Chelsea: Tammy Abraham still has a future at Stamford Bridge

Although Timo Werner has had an outstanding start to the season, Tammy Abraham’s Chelsea career should not come to an abrupt end.

Coming off a sensational performance against Barnsley in the Carabao Cup, there’s a lot to remember about Tammy Abraham. He hit a rough patch at the end of last year, however, he was still Chelsea’s top scorer in the Premier League. This should already indicate the quality possessed by the Blues new arrivals, including both Timo Werner and Kai Havertz, who can also play up top.

However, fans should not forget about Kevin Oghenetega Tamaraebi Bakumo-Abraham, or Tammy. Yes, I bet you didn’t know that is his actual name, but it doesn’t require someone to know his name to see the quality he has. The way he’s constantly closing defenders down, trying to force the issue, chasing lost causes and his ability to play off the talents around him should make him quite a desirable player for Frank Lampard.

Look at the game against Barnsley in the Carabao Cup, for example. We saw a confident Abraham. We saw him dummying the ball for Havertz and stopping the ball dead for Havertz to run onto and just bury. We saw him chase down a defender who made a mistake, which led directly to a clinical finish from the striker. This match summed up everything positive in the game of Abraham. I’m not going to sit here and tell you to book Abraham as the next winner of the golden boot—even with my rose-tinted glasses, that’s unlikely—but this does not mean he’s a bad player.

Abraham is very much like a little version of Werner. Except, Werner is like watching Abraham on 1.5x the normal speed. He’s there to make runs in behind and take the top off a defense so players like Havertz have room to operate between the lines. He’s not great with his hold up play, a la Olivier Giroud, and he’s not particularly pacy—like Werner is. However, he’s smart. He knows where to be when keepers need to parry rebounds, e.g. West Brom. He’s aware of where he’s most likely to bag himself a goal.

Referring to the game against West Brom, we didn’t see him at his utmost in terms of his clinical finishing, which we all know he possesses. We didn’t see him picking the ball up and running defenders back to their six-yard-box. We did see Abraham being a vulture though. We saw him sitting on the six-yard-box and waiting for balls to bounce back to him so he can steal the scraps. It’s how he scored the third goal against the Baggies. Cleaning up the scraps from a Mason Mount shot; that is how he makes his money. The 22-year-old did have more than a few chances that he squandered against West Brom, but still managed to impact the match.

Abraham had 15 goals in 34 appearances last year in the Premier League, so we’ve seen that he’s capable of successfully leading the line of a top four team. With the fact that now he’s got Werner and Giroud to learn from, and he’s also working with Lampard—who’s one of the best goal-scoring midfielders in the history of football. Abraham is only going to get better.

The fact he’s already in contention to lead the line for Chelsea at the age of 22 is a sign of how formidable a striker he is. He possesses a lot of quality and I don’t think there’s anyone who can dispute that. The youngster just needs to be molded into a true striker. Think of Dominic Calvert-Lewin at Everton and the transformation he’s had over the past two years—something like that with Abraham could spell a lot of success for Chelsea for years to come.

However, the point remains that Abraham on song is a very clinical striker. He’s proven he can perform at the highest level, at one point last year he was in the conversation for the Golden Boot. Yes, that might have been in September, but even so, he was still in the race for the Golden Boot.

I’m not trying to sit here and say he’s going to be the next version of Didier Drogba. As much as I’d love to, I cannot back it up in any way. He’s a great player, better than myself, and likely anyone reading this. Do not take away he’s already a very talented player, but he’s capable of taking that next step to truly establish himself as a striker of a top four side.