Tammy Abraham May Have Been Poor Against Tottenham - But He's Still Chelsea's Striker of the Future

Rising to challenges has been a core part of Tammy Abraham's career.

In his attempts to break through at Chelsea, he has had to: stand out in one of the Blues' most impressive youth sides of all time, shine at a Bristol City side who were battling relegation from the Championship, bounce back after a disappointing first taste of life in the Premier League with Swansea and cope with a drastic loss of form in his first season as a Chelsea senior.

Each time, he has stepped his game up and proved that he deserves a spot in the Blues' lineup for years to come, yet his position in the starting lineup has come into question after a disappointing performance in Sunday's 0-0 draw with Tottenham.

There's no denying that Abraham wasn't at his best. His link-up play was disjointed and he was guilty of squandering a handful of good chances, and he probably should have been brought off for Olivier Giroud earlier than the 79th minute.

Abraham needs to bounce back from that performance, but all the signs suggest he will.

Last season, when the Englishman's form took a nosedive both pre and post-lockdown, he needed a spell on the sidelines to learn from the veteran Giroud, whose years of experience in the game made him better equipped to deal with Chelsea's nervy end to the campaign.

Playing a reserve role for the second half of the season, Abraham sat back and observed Giroud's game. He watched his team-mate dropping deep, linking up with those around him and putting his body on the line in ways Abraham had never even considered, and he added all that to his game for this season.

In his 15 appearances this year (nine of which came as a starter), Abraham has bagged four goals and two assists, becoming more of a complete forward. Like Giroud, he has been more focused on helping his team-mates shine, but he has combined that with his youthful determination to succeed and score goals.

Against Spurs, it didn't work out. Abraham fluffed two great headed chances from elite Reece James crosses, and his touch just wasn't there.

However, the important thing is he was in the right positions to score. He may have failed to head home from crosses and his control may have stopped Hakim Ziyech from adding an assist or two, but as any top striker will tell you, losing your positioning is far worse than losing your scoring touch.

Given this was just his first poor performance as a starter this year, calls for Abraham to be dropped seem a little hasty. He's a 23-year-old striker in just his second season as a starter for Chelsea, he's never going to be perfect week in, week out.

Abraham's case wasn't helped in a week in which Giroud netted the winner against Rennes in Europe and 16-year-old academy gem Jude Soonsup-Bell made club history by bagging four goals in the Under-18's FA Youth Cup win over Barnsley. It's not a good time to be the only Chelsea striker not scoring goals.

He's got some learning to do, but so do Chelsea as a whole. The team are still learning how to manage games, and even Frank Lampard is still learning the ropes to an extent. There are going to be downs, but they usually come with the ups that make it all worth it.

No player likes putting in a poor showing against a fierce rival, but Abraham will relish the chance to improve. He dreams of emulating Blues legend Didier Drogba, and to do that, he needs to know how to elevate his performances in big games.

That side of his skill set may not be there just yet, but give Abraham time. He's jumped over every hurdle in his career thus far, and he'll be vaulting over this one before too long.

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