Has Chelsea's poisoned chalice striker role been remedied by Abraham?

It was a big chance for Tammy Abraham and one that, on current form, he probably should have scored. Having been played in by Andreas Christensen from a wonderfully threaded ball from defence, the England international perhaps should have squared for Mason Mount to tap into an empty net, but at the very least; slotted past Adrian.

The miss proved costly. Seven minutes later and Liverpool had doubled their advantage and while Chelsea made the match a contest through N’Golo Kante with 20 minutes to play, Chelsea still fell to a 2-1 defeat at the hands of the league leaders. Nevertheless, it was a mere blip on Abraham’s fine record following his return to Stamford Bridge.

It could have been so different for Abraham and Chelsea too. In January, he came close to a big money move to Wolves, but elected to stay at Aston Villa in their successful promotion push before returning to Chelsea. The 21-year-old is one of three current regulars to benefit not only from the Blues’ transfer ban, but also from head coach Frank Lampard’s focus on utilising the club’s academy players.

Of course, Lampard is familiar with both Mason Mount and Fikayo Tomori from their time together with Derby last season, but it could have been so much easier for the Chelsea manager to turn to experienced frontman Olivier Giroud as the club’s leading forward this season. And yet, Lampard kept faith in Abraham and that faith is being repaid.

It’s early days, of course, and while only Sergio Aguero (8) has scored more Premier League goals than Abraham (7) this season, he has still only scored in three of his six outings and just twice at home. Yet the early signs are positive. The striker role is something of a poisoned chalice for Chelsea, and there are those that have come and gone in the Blues’ efforts to acquire a forward to replicate Diego Costa’s 20-goal haul in 2014/15 and 2016/17.

Alvaro Morata started life in west London well, only to fade away prior to his return to Madrid. Giroud is a solid option, yet five league goals on the back of his January 2018 arrival paints its own picture. Gonzalo Higuain was perhaps viewed as the missing piece of the puzzle having joined on loan from Juventus to link up Maurizio Sarri at the turn of the year, and five goals in 14 outings was not the worst return, but Chelsea elected not to make the 31-year-old’s move permanent and, in hindsight, it is looking a wise decision.

Of course, it’s easy to make snap judgements about Abraham’s start to the campaign, yet even after his miss against Liverpool, a conversion rate of 38.9%, that the third best of the 144 players to have 10 or more shots in Europe’s top five leagues this season, is a fine return and rightly reinforces a statistically calculated WhoScored strength of ‘finishing’, that in itself deemed very strong.

It’s a marked improvement on the five goals he mustered during his previous full season in the Premier League while on loan at Swansea, which points to more mature Abraham and the fact he is playing in a better team with Chelsea fans beginning to bear witness to a striker who impressed at youth level. Chelsea as a team, meanwhile, have created the third most goalscoring chances (77) in the Premier League this season, so to have made such a prolific start to the campaign suggests the perfect forward was right under the club’s nose all this time.

In deploying a system that requires a lone forward, Lampard can take solace in Abraham’s experience in the role having largely done so for Aston Villa last season and while their remains a gulf in quality from the Championship to the Premier League, his performances in Villa’s favoured 4-1-4-1 formation last term undoubtedly stood him in good stead.

It is not just Abraham that deserves credit for the commendable start to life as Chelsea’s lead striker either, but Lampard too. Admittedly, he had his hands tied by the transfer ban, yet, as previously mentioned, the Chelsea boss didn’t take the easy way out and elect to stick with Giroud when the going got tough, but rather use Abraham to spearhead the attack and with his confidence increasing with each passing week, fans have seen the youngster go from strength-to-strength.

Like Abraham, along with Mount and Tomori, Chelsea are again a work in progress as they go through their latest cycle. The departure of Eden Hazard will have dented the side’s chances of landing a Champions League finish, however supporters are excited about the project ahead and, at last, maximising the club’s incredibly talented academy, with assistant manager Jody Morris well versed in the calibre of personnel already plying their trade for the club.

Michy Batshuayi’s barnstorming performance in Chelsea’s win over Grimsby was a timely reminder of his goal getting quality, and it is easy to forget that the Belgian is there to provide competition with Abraham for a starting spot at Stamford Bridge, but one would expect the English hitman to use the competition for regular place in the side to spur him on and reach new heights.

He’ll be hopeful of adding to his seven goals when Chelsea welcome Brighton to Stamford Bridge this weekend, especially as the Seagulls’ most recent away jaunt at a top six side saw them ship four times. However, rather than a one-off outing, if Abraham does find his name on the scoresheet for at least the eighth time England’s top tier this term, confidence among supporters will continue to grow that, at long last, Chelsea have the long-term answer to their striking woes.