Chelsea striker Tammy Abraham has explained how he regained his confidence after an underwhelming start this season.
The 22-year-old came back to Chelsea after a successful loan spell at Aston Villa last season, where he scored 26 goals in the Championship and helped them to Premier League promotion.
The Chelsea fans were not without some doubts, however, since Tammy scored just five goals the last time he played in the Premier League with Swansea in 2017/19.
Speaking to Chelsea’s official website, Tammy said his record at Villa initially made him feel ready to play for Chelsea, before it all went sour after the loss against Liverpool in the UEFA Super Cup at the start of the season.
He missed the decisive penalty which handed Liverpool the victory, and he ended up doubting his ability.
He said: “I was doing well on my loans but when I came back to Chelsea, it just wasn’t working – I couldn’t get my first goal, I couldn’t do anything.
“In my head I was wondering if it was worth all the stress because I was getting abused on Twitter, a lot of racist comments, people saying I wasn’t good enough to be playing for Chelsea.
“It was the biggest down in anything I’ve done in football”
But Chelsea manager Frank Lampard kept his faith in the striker, which eventually led to Tammy regaining his confidence and becoming the club’s top scorer with 13 goals in the Premier League so far.
He made his mark for Chelsea with two goals against Norwich in August 2019 and even celebrated his first strike with the manager.
Tammy said: “In my head, I knew that if I didn’t score then, it could be my last starting chance gone.
“When I scored, the emotions just got to me. I ran over to the manager and I was thinking ‘I’ve just scored my first goal for Chelsea!’
“That’s when the confidence started to come back. I scored the winner in that game as well so from there the confidence came back gradually. The Chelsea fans started to believe in me and I could kick on.”
With Tammy now ready to make a comeback after injury, Lampard will surely rely on the England international’s goal instincts ahead of the Premier League restart.
And Blues fans have the manager to thank for someone who could potentially be Chelsea’s main goal-scorer for years to come.