Ex Chelsea star Tammy Abraham is A 'gladiator' at Roma loved for his passion for Italy and his GOALS

Fans of AS Roma will be praying Tammy Abraham lives up to his new nickname when the battle commences at the Stadio Olimpico in the Rome derby on Sunday.

'Tre Punti Tammy'- or Tammy Three Points – is the new chant of the Curva Sud and it will be ringing around the magnificent coliseum in the Italian capital when the Giallorossi meet Lazio again, in one of the fiercest rivalries in football.

Abraham bravely left his boyhood club, Chelsea, and signed for Roma in a deal worth £35 million in August, last year.

It was a journey into the unknown, but one Abraham felt he had to make after his opportunities dried up at Stamford Bridge under new manager, Thomas Tuchel.

Under former Blues boss Jose Mourinho, Abraham has embraced Rome, and AS Roma, while the city and club have both returned the compliment in what is turning into a heart-warming love affair.

The striker is winning matches. He is on the cusp of a record-breaking season, with 21 goals in 39 games.

His 90th minute tap in against Vitesse to send Roma through to the quarter-final of the Europa Conference League on Thursday put him level with club legends, Vincenzo Montella, and, Gabriel Batistuta, for the most goals in a debut season.

Boys Roma, the club's Ultras, are desperate for the record to fall this weekend. If it does, and Roma avenge the painful 3-2 defeat inflicted upon them by the Biancocelesti in September, Abraham's star will rise even higher.

In Rome, the Derby della Capitale is ranked above the Scudetto – the league title – or even European success for many fans. These are the games that matter.

But the fact is, the Romanisti have already taken the boy from Peckham firmly to their hearts.

'This club is your home,' wrote one Giallorosso on Twitter after Abraham scored against Atalanta in a 1-0 win. He was speaking for the fan base.

'I've always liked Abraham,' said Montella, who played for Roma for 10 years scoring 83 Serie A goals in 192 games, including four against Lazio.

'I think his biggest qualities are the level of aggressiveness that he shows on the pitch and the spirit of self-sacrifice for the good of the team.'

'He knows how to attack the depth and has an incredible instinct for scoring goals.'

Montella, currently the coach of Turkish side Adana Demirspor, is unconcerned that the Englishman is closing in on his record, because that is not the one that counts.

For him, it is the goals he scored in the derby that sets him apart from Roma's other front men and secures his place in the Giallorossi hall of fame.

'I very much care about[ that],' he told La Gazetta Dello Sport, coolly. He didn't sound like he was joking.

The relationship between Abraham and Rome began with success on the pitch, but it now extends beyond the stadium.

Abraham loves Rome, and Romans love the fact he loves it.

The Italian press celebrate every Rome appreciation post on Abraham's Insta account, almost as much as any goal.

They gleefully recount his love of Italian food and patronage of the capital's excellent restaurants and famous landmarks, often in the company of his girlfriend, model and influencer, Leah Monroe.

'It's sick,' Abraham summarised succinctly, when encouraging an English journalist to make the most of his time in the Eternal City, following an interview.

This week, Abraham visited the Colosseum, the ancient amphitheatre in the heart of the city, which was the stage for gladiatorial contests and public spectacles more than 2000 years ago.

Supporters lapped up the parallels with the Roma-Lazio contest about to come, as well as Abraham's reaction. 'Unbelievable' he wrote on Insta.

'More and more… he is the gladiator of Mourinho's Rome,' declared Siamolaroma, a news site devoted to AS Roma.

Abraham can often be seen walking the city that has adopted him, taking in its landmarks and its history.

Asked what he likes to do after training, the star striker simply replied, 'just learn about Rome…'

In another post he revealed a panoramic video shot from his flat on the edge of the EUR district, famous for its architecture.

The short film takes in Il Fungo, a mushroom shaped restaurant on stilts, where Abraham and Leah have dined, above the stylised buildings of EUR, designed and built in the 1930s under the fascist dictator, Benito Mussolini.

In foreground is the park of Palazzo dello Sport and the EUR lake, where Abraham works out under the watchful eye of Milanese osteopath Antonio Giovinazzo, who specialises in treating elite athletes and visits Abraham and his English team mate, Chris Smalling, in Rome.

'What a city!' wrote the footballer.

But it is perhaps Abraham's love of Italian food that endears him most to the locals.

'I like to go to eat,' he admitted to Pro: Direct Soccer, in an interview last month. 'They were not lying about their food.'

What he eats is strictly controlled by the Roma nutritionists, and it is clear from his performances, work rate and lean appearance that Abraham is in peak physical condition.

Abraham's early evening walks have taken him into the heart of the old city and to the restaurants that crowd the alleys running between Piazza di Spagna – the Spanish square - and Via della Fontanella Borghese.

Within the labyrinth, is Ristorante Matricianella, an old-style trattoria serving traditional Roman food, including salt cod, lamb sweetbreads and tripe.

However, Abraham prefers something more modest and better suited to a high-energy athlete – his favourite meal is pesto pasta.

The restaurant is a Roman institution, hosting the city's VIPs, where the works would set you back £160 for two, without drinks, but a plate of pasta can still be had for a tenner.

Abraham and Leah dined at the Matricianella last month after Roma crashed out of the Coppa Italia, following a 2-0 defeat to Inter Milan at the San Siro.

A group of Roma fans on a neighbouring table expressed their disappointment at the defeat, in a respectful way. It was a disappointment Abraham shared. Before he slipped out, the Roma star paid their bill.

Moments like this, coupled with a video that caught the London lad belting out the Rome club's anthem, 'Roma, Roma, Roma', and the goals, have helped ease the transition from the Premier League to Serie A.

Many Englishmen, over many decades have struggled to succeed in Italy or to create the connection with the fans. The pressure cooker of Italian football got to them in the end. Jimmy Greaves, Ian Rush, Paul Gascoigne all struggled in different ways.

Abraham admits it has been 'tough' at times. He was at Chelsea from the age of six, where he grew up with and around team mates like Reece James, Mason Mount and Callum Hudson-Odoi.

He speaks to James every day and keeps in contact with the Chelsea players in a WhatsApp group, while beating Man United's Jadon 'Sanch' Sancho at Warzone.

But Abraham is one of a new generation of English footballing talent, who have gone abroad to better themselves, when chances to do so were limited in the star-studded Premier League.

It is not just the young guns, like Sancho, who blazed a trail at Borussia Dortmund before his move to United, or Jude Bellingham, who followed the English winger to Germany.

At Roma, ex-Manchester United defender Chris Smalling, 32, is also thriving, and Ainsley Maitland-Niles, who played his part in the victory over Vitesse, is with them, on loan from Arsenal.

For Abraham, he has been offered an opportunity by Mourinho – who promised sunshine over rain - and he is determined to seize it. He has worked hard to get here and it is impossible not to be pleased for him.

'Life was not easy growing up in Peckham,' he told Pro: Direct Soccer. 'My dad was travelling a lot trying to bring money into the house.

'My mum was working, taking me to football, my brother to football, my sister to school.

'Me, my brother and sister all sharing a room. Little things like that motivated me… I want to make it man.'

And he is.

In the Roma dressing room, Abraham has struck up a friendship with winger Nicolo Zaniolo, 22, which helping him succeed.

Early in the season, the former Chelsea man was battling away up front on his own, but he has benefited since Mourinho tweaked his formation, moving Zaniolo closer to the striker in a 3-4-1-2 formation. Abraham has now scored nine goals in the last 13 Serie A games.

The team is clearly united - the only issue is the musical taste of his team mates.

At Chelsea, Hudson-Odoi was in charge of the tunes, but in Italy, if the two Brazilians in the squad, or Lorenzo Pellegrini, don't take control, there is a problem.

Off the pitch, Abraham has not put a foot wrong, except for a minor culinary faux pas picked up by the Italian media. Bemused fans saw the Englishman take a cappuccino after he had enjoyed a dinner of eggplant parmigiana at a street café.

The Romanisti, of course, would only ever order a cappuccino at breakfast.

It is a far cry from the days of Gascoigne, when he joined Lazio in 1992. Back then, amid the hysteria of the midfield maestro's arrival, 'Gazza' ate his way out of a chocolate egg in an ill-advised media stunt, and burped into the microphone of a RAI journalist.

This is a different era.

'He still has very English habits…' counselled the fan site, Roma Forever, with touching paternalism after the cappuccino incident.

But with each week Abraham looks more settled in Italy. And while he would admit it is a work in progress, he is trying hard to learn Italian.

'You start to forget the English language,' quipped the striker.

The Giallorossi will hope that is really true, and that the buy-back clause Chelsea inserted into front man's Roma contract will be forgotten too.

Abraham is a Roman now.