Tammy Abraham’s poor night must boost Aston Villa’s January hopes

Follow us on Google Discover

Tammy Abraham endured a miserable night in front of goal as Aston Villa drew their latest Championship clash.

Aston Villa may find themselves outside of the play-off places, but their form under Dean Smith will leave many tipping the Villans for the promotion race – especially if they can enjoy a productive January window.

There are areas of the squad they need to look to improve next month, but one of their biggest concerns heading into the window is whether they will be able to hold onto Tammy Abraham.

Abraham has enjoyed an excellent spell on loan at Villa Park and went into Friday’s clash with West Brom having scored seven goals in his previous four appearances in the Championship.

That had seemingly alerted his parent club, with The Sun reporting last week that Chelsea were weighing up whether to bring Abraham back to Stamford Bridge in January.

So if there is one positive to emerge from the draw with the Baggies at The Hawthorns, it is surely that Abraham’s performance would have done little to convince the Blues that he is ready to step up to Premier League level just yet.

On a highly controversial night, Villa were denied victory as Jay Rodriguez scored a stoppage-time equaliser with his hand for the home side. Even Rodriguez initially seemed certain that the referee would disallow the goal, so Smith’s men rightly felt hard done by that the incident was not spotted by any of the officials.

However, they could have potentially been out of sight long before added-time had Abraham taken one of the chances that came his way.

The 21-year-old’s build-up play was impressive, but when he got in front of goal, he squandered some of the opportunities, including one superb chance that came about following a cross from Yannick Bolasie.

Bolasie managed to find Abraham unmarked in the middle of the goal, but the striker somehow fluffed his lines at the vital moment.

Abraham is certainly allowed an off-night given his form so far. And while Villa missed out on the three points, the result actually may prove beneficial as they look to hold onto the striker in January – which, over the course of the season, could outweigh the disappointment of Rodriguez denying them the two additional points they deserved.