For the third Premier League weekend running, Tammy Abraham’s goals made the difference for Chelsea as our young striker netted his first top-flight treble in a thrilling 5-2 victory over Wolves at Molineux.
Abraham’s fellow Academy graduates were also in on the act, with Fikayo Tomori scoring his first goal for the club in spectacular fashion and Mason Mount notching his third of the campaign, in a rampant attacking display from Frank Lampard’s young side. It means all 11 league goals netted by the Blues so far this season have come from our homegrown English contingent, a fairly remarkable statistic after 450 minutes of action.
Yet it was our 21-year-old centre-forward who stole the show once more, picking up the match ball and becoming the club’s youngest player to score a Premier League hat-trick in the process. He admitted afterwards that there was still plenty for the team to work on, although winning while learning and adapting was the most important thing.
‘It's been an amazing day,' reflected Abraham. 'Coming to a place like Wolves is never easy so the manner of the victory is something we can be very pleased with. We played well, scored goals and got three points to take home with us so it’s been a great day.
‘Obviously we did concede two goals and that is something we’re disappointed about because a clean sheet would have been fantastic but we will take the positives out of this performance and take it into the next game.’
Read - Lampard's post-match verdict
There was frustration in the ranks after our last outing, the 2-2 draw with Sheffield United in which we succumbed to a late goal at Stamford Bridge, and Abraham was part of the group left behind at Cobham during the recent international break to mull over those two dropped points.
Lampard switched to 3-4-2-1 for the trip to the Black Country, a change he admitted was partly to combat the strengths of Wolves and partly a response to our own needs. Abraham led the line again, rewarding his manager’s enduring faith with more goals as the spearhead of a pacey attacking unit.
‘We were disappointed not to get three points against Sheffield United so to come here and do that so convincingly is fantastic,’ the striker continued. ‘We’ve worked on a few things and there was obviously a different approach in our system today than before but it worked really well.
‘There’s a lot of pace in the side going forward and I thought we looked very dangerous on the counter-attack. We’re getting bodies into the box, which is what the gaffer wants, and we did that really well today. Fortunately, we got five goals and three points so we’re all very happy.’
While Abraham and Mount have earned the early-season headlines for their eye-catching performances and contributions, it was defender Tomori who netted the standout goal in the Midlands. His stunning strike from range opened the scoring, although Abraham admitted he was far from convinced about the outcome when his good mate took aim from almost 30 yards out.
‘I was thinking ‘don’t shoot, Fikayo,’ he laughed, ‘but everyone is delighted for him. In training, he’s been trying it every day and smashing windows but today it paid off – it was a great strike.
'We were the last people off the pitch because we were discussing how we've all scored in the same game for Chelsea. We've dreamt of that since we were little boys and we made it happen today.'
On a personal note, it has been quite the start to life as a Chelsea senior player for Tammy. Handed the number nine shirt in August, he is now the Premier League’s top goalscorer and his hat-trick at Molineux sees him join Dele Alli and Cristiano Ronaldo as the only players aged 21 or under to have scored twice or more in three successive Premier League matches.
‘I’ve been working hard and hopefully this can be my season,’ the Londoner added. ‘It’s up to me to keep showing the gaffer in every game and training session that I’m hungry and I want success.
‘He told me at half-time to stay on and get the hat-trick so I believed and stayed focused. I’ve just got to be ready to take every chance that comes my way with both hands. I’m working hard and I’m just delighted to see that pay off with my goals today as well as the three points.'