Arsenal might well regret being unable to sign Tammy Abraham this summer.
The former Chelsea hitman looked set to join the Gunners at one point earlier in August but wound up signing for Roma in a £34 million deal.
Abraham, a boyhood Arsenal fan, was said to be desperate to move to North London [The Athletic] – and those at the Emirates Stadium may well rue their failure to get him.
That’s because early indications are, he could be a big, big hit in Italy.
The 24-year-old wasn’t among the goals on Sunday as Jose Mourinho’s side beat Fiorentina 3-1, but it was a show-stopping performance nonetheless.
Despite this being his debut in a foreign country, Abraham looked as if he’d been plying his trade in Serie A for years.
One man very impressed by his performance is Arsenal legend Ian Wright, who claimed that the young hitman looked a ‘totally different animal’ to anything he’d seen from him in the past.
He told The Wrighty’s House podcast on Spotify: “Tammy played with his chest the other day. He looked like a totally different animal to anything I’ve seen him do at Chelsea since his youth days at Chelsea.”
False dawn on Wednesday
Arsenal still need a number nine – badly.
Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang scored a hat-trick on Wednesday as the Gunners beat West Brom 6-0 in the EFL Cup.
But Aubameyang also scored trebles last season – even in the Premier League – and it didn’t lead to the Gabon international rediscovering the golden touch that he showed most weeks since arriving back in 2018.
On his day, the former Borussia Dortmund marksman is absolutely lethal but, at 32, he has shown signs of slowing down and only 15 goals in all competitions last season [a 14-goal decrease compared to the 2019-20 campaign] illustrates that.
Yep, Mikel Arteta needs another goalscorer in the final five days of the transfer window, despite missing out on Abraham.
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