Abraham confident ahead of new season as Chelsea work on the high press

Tammy Abraham’s future may be uncertain, but he seems quite certain that Chelsea, at least as a team, will be ready for the new season. Whether he will be part of that is the question that’s unasked in this situation, but after scoring the winning goal in the Arsenal friendly, our No.9 is confident ahead of the new season, which is set to start in less than two weeks!

“We’ve been working on the press all pre-season and it paid off for the second goal. [We] have been working hard in training. It’s for the best because we are all ready for the season.

“We will take our time, we still have a couple more sessions to come, and we still have players coming back, so we’re bonding and I am sure we will get there.”

-Tammy Abraham; source: Chelsea FC

Abraham’s emphasis on the press is perhaps noteworthy since whoever ends up playing at center forward will certainly have to be an active participant in it. Thomas Tuchel may not rate Tammy as much as we might, but if the 23-year-old is applying himself in a manner helpful to the head coach’s tactics, perhaps there is a chance still that he stays — especially as our pursuits of other strikers have hit snag after snag after rejection.

But perhaps that’s just wishful thinking on my part. Abraham remains linked with an exit, most strongly to Arsenal, and recent reports have claimed that we might be willing to lower our £40m asking price even to make that a reality. Booo...