TAMMY ABRAHAM underpinned his England prospects with a standout display against Wolves on Saturday (Sep 14), writes Tony Snow at Molineux.
Abraham completed his first senior hat-trick in Chelsea colours in an eventful 5-2 victory at Wolverhampton Wanderers. The giant striker, who was on loan at Aston Villa last term, may well have put himself in the international frame with matches against the Czech Republic and Bulgaria.
Three players, all young Englishmen – shared the goals for The Blues, each of whom may not have even made the matchday squad had Chelsea’s transfer embargo not been in place.
Abraham was the star of the show – with a classic centre-forward display which earned understandable praise from his manager, Frank Lampard: “He has scored seven goals in three games and three very different goals today – a messy one, a good header then with great feet.”
It was a 35-yard screamer by Fikayo Tomori that set the West Londoners on their way in the 31st minute. And the five-goal romp was capped off by Mason Mount, who scored an individual effort at the death after yet another impressive display.
England manager Gareth Southgate will have been licking his lips and possibly wishing more top-flight teams were banned from importing expensive playing talent with the increased number of Englishmen on show.
Wolves should have been dead-and-buried when Abraham wrapped up his hat-trick with Chelsea’s fourth in the 55th minute, but his eventful afternoon took a twist when he scored a bizarre own goal as Wolves’ fullback Romain Saiss’ header struck his right hand before crossing the line
The energetic Patrick Cutrone added a second Wolves goal from close range, but the deficit was too great and with the clock ticking Mount’s fifth was reward for the player’s industry and guile in the Chelsea engine room.
Wolves, whose season began in July with Europa league qualifiers remain without a top-flight win this season. Their talismanic striker, Raul Jiminez put in an uncharacteristically lacklustre performance, but manager Nuno Espírito Santo says the volume of games has had no bearing on results in the league.
“This is a challenge we want to embrace and we are prepared. Today was just a very bad performance,” said the Portuguese.
And talk of second season syndrome was also quickly dismissed: “This is our third season, we started in the Championship and we are the same. We have to congratulate Chelsea, but we didn’t play well. We must realise what happened and don’t repeat.”
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