Chelsea striker Tammy Abraham has thanked Aston Villa fans for chanting his name during their final Premier League game of the campaign against the blues on Sunday.
The 23-year-old England international was left out of Thomas Tuchel’s matchday squad once again as the London club slipped to a 2-1 defeat at Villa Park.
However, Chelsea were still able to secure a fourth-placed finish as Leicester City were beaten 4-2 at home by Tottenham.
Abraham is set to leave the club this summer having struggled to secure playing time after Tuchel took over from Frank Lampard as manager at the end of January.
And Villa supporters made it clear that they would welcome back Abraham with open arms as they chanted the player’s name during the second half of their 2-1 victory over Chelsea.
And after the game, Abraham posted a video on Twitter of the Villa supporters singing along with the message: ‘Aston Villa fans, I appreciate you guys! thank you & all the best in the future.’
The England star spent the 2018-19 campaign on loan with Villa in the Championship, scoring 26 goals in 40 matches and helping the team secure promotion to the Premier League.
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After Villa’s victory over Chelsea, Abraham also gave a nod to his club’s fourth-place finish in the Premier League: ‘Champions league secured. A long, hard Premier League season complete. Onto the Champions League.’
Tuchel was quizzed about the decision to leave Abraham out of the side that took on Leicester City in the FA Cup final last weekend. He said: “Well it’s just the amount of people that I can nominate for a game,” Tuchel said.
“I decided to start Timo Werner in the number nine role, so we had Kai Havertz and Olivier Giroud on the bench, so we decided not to have three number nines on the bench. This is it, it’s never personal.
“I understand his frustration and it was not the first time, and we have other guys with the same situation to face.”
