Tammy Abraham of Chelsea is linked with a move to Arsenal and AS Roma. (GETTY Images)
Speaking after our win on Monday (h/t Mirror), Chelsea manager Frank Lampard explained the reason behind Olivier Giroud being benched for Tammy Abraham against West Ham United.
The talk before the match was centred around the in-form Olivier Giroud being benched. In his place, Frank Lampard started 23-year-old English forward Tammy Abraham.
Giroud started all of Chelsea’s last 3 Premier League games and managed to score twice during that time.
Despite struggling for playing time at the start of the season, Giroud’s 4-goal haul against Sevilla made Frank Lampard hand more game time to the 34-year-old.
However, the Frenchman sat out against Crystal Palace on Monday. The decision to start Abraham proved fruitful as he was on target against The Hammers.
Chelsea opened the scoring, courtesy of a thumping header from Thiago Silva in the 10th minute. The Blues defended a 1-0 lead for almost 70 minutes before Tammy Abraham bagged a quick brace to seal the 3-0 scoreline.
And Lampard revealed after the match that the type of opponents faced on the night decided who started for him up front.
“You have to look at the opposition and they have different attributes.”
Abraham’s ability to run in behind the defence was also crucial in Lampard’s decision making, as he admitted that he was clueless about how West Ham would line up for the game.
“We did not know whether they would play a back 3 or 4. With Tammy Abraham’s natural ability to move in behind it would have suited us better today.”
And suit them better it did. Abraham scored a wonderful double to make the last 10 minutes of the game comfortable for the hosts.
Chelsea now sit 5th in the table, leapfrogging Tottenham Hotspur. The Blues fell down to 8th earlier this week after back-to-back losses for the first time this season.
Giroud would be hoping that he gets to take the pitch on Saturday when Chelsea face his former club Arsenal in a much-awaited derby.
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