Seven goals in his first four Premier League appearances for the season were enough to silence those who had wondered if Tammy Abraham could lead the line for a club like Chelsea.
In fact, the 22-year-old started running, scoring 14 goals in all competitions before the turn of the year. The Blues, apparently, had found their next number nine.
Since then, Abraham has somehow struggled to support his early season form. Injuries played a role in this, but even when the center forward played, he lacked the bravado and self-assurance that saw him score for fun in the early months of the campaign. Now, Abraham may not even be Chelsea’s first choice striker.
Abraham started the game on Saturday at Sheffield United, playing all 90 minutes in a disappointing 3-0 defeat, but for the 3-2 victory over Crystal Palace before Frank Lampard opted to field Olivier Giroud as a forward. Central and that theme continued against Norwich City mid-week.
The Frenchman, who cashed in the winner to continue the Blues top-four, at the moment seems more natural for this Chelsea team and who, in many cases, has left Abraham to settle for a place on the bench.
This is even before Timo Werner’s summer arrival. Chelsea paid £ 53m to beat Liverpool at the signing of the RB Leipzig striker who has scored 28 goals in Bundesliga 34 games this season, and therefore it would be reasonable to assume that Lampard has a plan in mind to field Werner as first key team figure.
Of course, it is possible that Werner could be used on the left side of the attack. This is a role he played several times for RB Leipzig and therefore Lampard could feasibly use Abraham and Werner on the same team, with the latter leaving the wing to connect. What would it mean for Christian Pulisic, Chelsea’s best player since the restart of the Premier League season?
Another option for Lampard would be to squeeze his team into a 4-4-2 form in order to use Abraham and Werner as two heads. But this would be an embarrassing use of the Chelsea team as a whole, though. Where would Hakim Ziyech fit, for example? What about Pulisic and a double pivot would cover enough ground in the middle of the field?
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Although Lampard plans to use an Orthodox two front, Giroud might be a better choice to play alongside Abraham’s Werner, such is the Frenchman’s ability to bring others into the game. The competition for attackers at Stamford Bridge will be stiffer next season and Abraham may be the one missing.
Last week saw Abraham activate an option to extend his Chelsea contract an additional year, which means that the attacker will now be linked to the club until 2023.
Not long ago, Abraham was the face of Chelsea’s future, but the picture has now changed at Stamford Bridge. It is not beyond the realms of possibility that the 22-year-old can now be expelled from Lampard’s team. It’s not just Werner that Abraham has to worry about.
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