Tammy Abraham first in 38 years to reach Chelsea homegrown mark with hat-trick

Tammy Abraham came into last night’s FA Cup fourth round match against Luton Town as Chelsea’s third highest goal-scorer on the season, one behind Olivier Giroud and Timo Werner. He left the game 77 minutes later as Chelsea’s highest goal-scorer on the season, after a well-taken hat-trick saw him score every Chelsea goal in the 3-1 win.

With Abraham now not only first on the team but also first into double figures in goals, he also reached a mark no homegrown Chelsea player has reached in nearly four decades. As per the bottomless Twitter-font of Chelsea trivia and fun facts, @ChelseaChadder, Abraham is the first Academy player to reach double figures in goals for the first-team in two consecutive seasons since Mike Fillery did so in 1982-83, at right around the same age as Abraham in fact.

One key difference of course was that Fillery did it in the old second division, while Abraham’s been doing it in the Premier League!

Fillery, the 1982 Chelsea Player of the Year, would be on his way out of the club at the end of the 1982-83 season, joining, of all teams, QPR, who had won the Second Division that season to earn promotion to the top flight. So we’d never find out if he would’ve made it three seasons in a row in double digits. Hopefully Tammy will get that chance.

For now, Tammy’s just worried about the here and now, even with 2.5 years still left on his contract — extended by a year last season, but a long-term extension remains just in the rumor and talks stage.

“Great to score a hat trick and win the game so comfortably. It is always nice to get a win and play well. Hopefully we will take that confidence on.”

-Tammy Abraham; source: BBC

Bossman Frank Lampard was obviously pleased with the young man’s efforts as well, even if he did not look it on the sidelines bundled up in his warm clothes and constant scowl.

“Tammy gets three goals which is great for him and us because it keeps his confidence up and the overall performance was really good.”

-Frank Lampard; source: Football.London

Confidence is certainly not something Abraham’s ever lacking, but he, like most others on the team this season, has not been able to find consistent form just yet. But we can all hope that after a month and half of frustration and bad results, we will be turning a corner this week. Wolves on Wednesday are next, then Burnley on Sunday, both at home.

“We know how good we are, results haven’t been going our way recently, so we needed to come out and build our confidence back, and we have another game on Wednesday. Hopefully we will go into that game with confidence, try to get an early goal and try to settle early.”

There is that word again, confidence. It’s a good thing Tammy’s got oodles because his strike partner from yesterday seems rather devoid of it at the moment.

Photo by DANIEL LEAL-OLIVAS/AFP via Getty Images

Timo Werner isn’t hiding from the ball, to his credit, but things are just not falling into place for him right now. Still, the combination between Timo and Tammy showed some promise, and perhaps we can build on that as the team’s strikers support and drive each other to better performances.

“Sometimes it is tough to do too much at once, so playing with Timo, we kind of equalled it out. When he comes short, I come long and we had a good combination in this game. I enjoyed it and hopefully it can carry on like that.”

“I have been at the club since the age of six so I have known how it has always been. Chelsea always bring top-quality players in and there is always going to be great competition. We drive each other. When one of us scores a goal the others are delighted for him and for me and Timo to be on the pitch together was an honour. I encouraged him and he encouraged me and we got through it. It was unlucky for him not to get a goal as well.”

-Tammy Abraham; source: Chelsea FC

Abraham and Giroud have both gotten hat-tricks this season — Giroud scoring four in fact. Maybe it’ll be Werner’s turn next time.

Chelsea hat-tricks in the last five years, with Abraham’s latest the 153rd in club history (scored by 80 different players):

Jan 2016 — Oscar: 3 vs. MK Dons (a) 5-1 — FA Cup
Sep 2017 — Batshuayi: 3 vs. Nottingham Forest (h) 5-1 — League Cup
Sep 2017 — Morata: 3 vs. Stoke City (a) 4-0 — Premier League
Sep 2018 — Hazard: 3 vs. Cardiff City (h) 4-1 — Premier League
Oct 2018 — Loftus-Cheek: 3 vs. BATE (h) 3-1 — Europa League
Mar 2019 — Giroud: 3 vs. Dynamo Kiev (a) 5-0 — Europa League
Sep 2019 — Abraham: 3 vs. Wolves (a) 5-2 — Premier League
Oct 2019 — Pulisic: 3 vs. Burnley (a) 4-2 — Premier League
Sep 2020 — Havertz: 3 vs. Barnsley (h) 6-0 — League Cup
Dec 2020 — Giroud: 4 vs. Sevilla (a) 4-0 — Champions League
Jan 2021 — Abraham: 3 vs. Luton Town (h) 3-1 — FA Cup