Tammy Abraham: Striker comes close to emulating Arjen Robben in landmark Chelsea line-up v Palace
Tammy Abraham continued his fine start to life as Chelsea’s no.9 with another goal against Crystal Palace.
The 22-year-old was trusted with leading the line for Chelsea after an impressive loan spell at Aston Villa last season in which he scored 26 goals in 40 Championship games.
There had been fears over his ability to be a starting striker in the Premier League, especially at a club of Chelsea’s stature, after he struggled on loan at Swansea City two seasons ago.
But the young forward has wasted little time to prove his doubters wrong, while also dispelling the apparent curse of Chelsea no.9s which has seen the likes of Fernando Torres, Falcao and Alvaro Morata all struggle to find goals on a consistent level.
Opening the scoring against Palace on Saturday afternoon, Abraham grabbed his 10th Premier League goal of the season, moving level with Jamie Vardy at the top of the goalscoring charts.
At 22 years and 38 days Abraham became the second youngest Chelsea player to reach 10 Premier League goals. Only Arjen Robben achieved the feat at a younger age for the Blues, doing so aged 21 years and 342 days.
It was another success story for the young Chelsea side, who currently sit second in the table albeit having played a game more than Leicester and Manchester City. In fact, against Palace the Blues named their youngest ever Premier League starting XI, with an average age of 24 years and 88 days. It’s also the youngest Premier League starting XI by any club this season.
Chelsea manager Frank Lampard also kept to younger players when making his substitutions. Only Michy Batshuayi, 26, replaced someone younger than him when coming on from the bench. Second goalscorer Christian Pulisic, 21, was replaced by 19-year-old Callum Hudson-Odoi while 18-year-old Billy Gilmour replaced Mason Mount, 20.
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