Abraham proud to be Chelsea No.9 as he's ready to follow footsteps of the greats

Tammy Abraham notched his ninth goal of the season against Crystal Palace, which puts him just one goal behind Leicester City's Jamie Vardy in the race for the Golden Boot.

The 22-year-old is proud to keep defying critics who suggested he wouldn't be able to shoulder Chelsea's main goalscoring burden after returning to the Bridge from a loan spell at Aston Villa this summer.

"It wasn’t our best game today, you can see that", said Abraham. "The most important thing was that we got the three points. At half-time the manager said we need to stay focused as the chances will come and we came out in the second half much better and got the two goals.

"Crystal Palace are a good side. They defend well as a team and in the first half, they frustrated our style of play. Second half we believed and we didn’t change our style of play, we just wanted to play attacking football and we got the two goals.

"The No.9’s who have been at Chelsea have been world-class strikers and it was a big task for me to take on but I was ready, I felt ready in myself and I’m wearing it and I’m proud to be the No.9."