Aston Villa manager Dean Smith has branded striker Tammy Abraham Premier League quality after his double saw Villa defeat Ipswich Town on Saturday.
The Chelsea loanee’s brace helped seal a 2-1 victory over the Tractor Boys, and Smith was effusive in his praise of the 21-year-old after the full time whistle, making the exciting prediction that he is only going to keep scoring for the Villans.
“We all spoke about him staying at the football club, he’s now gone up to 19 goals and there’s certainly more goals in him with the games that we’ve got,” he told the Express & Star.
“It’s an outstanding tally of goals that he’s got since he’s got here and it’s just proving really he’s a Premier League [player] playing in the Championship for us,” he finished.
OPINION
It’s hard to argue with what Smith is saying, here. Both seasons that Abraham has spent in the Championship he has absolutely torn the division to pieces. He didn’t have quite the same success in the Premier League last campaign, of course, but it’s worth remembering that he was playing in a woeful Swansea City side. The Welsh team were really unable to produce a competitive team for much of the season and Abraham’s goal tally suffered because of that. The big question for him now is whether his ceiling is as a very good Championship striker. We’ve seen players like Dwight Gayle, Cameron Jerome, Rudy Gestede and Lewis Grabban prove to be top class second tier marksmen who can’t quite replicate that same level of success in the top flight. Abraham won’t want his name to be added to that list, so he’ll have to start producing at the top level sooner or later.