Tammy Abraham’s long and strange exclusion not only from Chelsea lineups but from Chelsea matchday squads over the past couple months could be set to end today, as we travel across town to take on West Ham at the Olympic Stadium in a massive top-four six-pointer.
Abraham last played in late February, against Southampton, and has made the bench just once in the nine Premier League and FA Cup games since. (Making the bench in the Champions League is not much of an accomplishment since they allow for the entire squad to do so.) That Abraham remains our leading goal-scorer on the season despite that absence just underlines the struggles we’ve had in front of the opposition’s goal.
But Abraham’s recall has nothing to do with his brace against the Hammers earlier this season.
“He has struggled for several reasons, one of the reasons are my decisions. There are several other reasons, he was a bit unlucky, he was injured, we talked about it. He struggled a bit to accept the situation and he struggled a bit finding the solution to the situation, to be a bit stuck between his demands to himself, and his expectations about his role, the role he was suddenly in.
“But now I have the feeling that he has found a way to cope with it, which I am very happy about. He produced very good training sessions now in a row. This was the first step, and he has a high chance to be in the squad tomorrow. And as I said as a striker, you never know, things can change in one minute.”
-Thomas Tuchel; source: Goal
Sounds like Tammy will get a chance to prove himself then. His last few starts (his only starts under Tuchel) haven’t exactly gone to plan, picking up his ankle injury in one of them and getting the hook at half-time in each of the other two, but hopefully this time (from the start or off the bench) things will go more to plan — for both him and the team.