Arsenal are planning a £7million swoop for Salomon Kalou.
Gunners boss Arsene Wenger sees the 23-year-old young African Player of the Year as the ideal replacement for Emmanuel Adebayor, following his £25million move to Manchester City.
Adebayor's sale leaves Arsenal light up front, especially as injury-hit Croatian striker Eduardo is still sidelined and Samir Nasri is also out for six weeks with a broken leg.
New Blues boss Carlo Ancelotti wants Kalou to stay at Stamford Bridge but Chelsea have yet to offer the Ivory Coast front man a new contract. His current deal of around £45,000-a-week runs out next summer and Arsenal would be prepared to up his wages to nearer £70,000-a-week to make him one of the top earners at the Emirates.
A Blues insider declared: "Salomon is flattered by Arsenal's interest, but at the moment he is fully committed to Chelsea."
Kalou, who joined Chelsea in an £8m transfer from Feyenoord in 2006, actually had a two-week trial at Arsenal before joining the Dutch club and Wenger has monitored his career ever since.
Kalou scored 10 goals for Chelsea last season but made just 17 Premier League starts and was behind Didier Drogba and Nicolas Anelka in the pecking order. But he is desperate for regular first team action and Arsenal could offer him that.
He is friends with Arsenal's fellow Ivory Coast internationals Kolo Toure and Emmanuel Eboue and shares the same agent as Gunners' Dutch striker Robin Van Persie.
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Wenger's only signing this summer has been little-known Belgian defender Thomas Vermaelen from Ajax.
The Gunners boss missed out on £15m Brazilian midfielder Felipe Melo when Juventus snatched him from Fiorentina, while Wenger's bid for Bordeaux's £6million-rated Moroccan striker Marouane Chamakh has stalled.
Chamakh has been linked with a host of Premier League clubs, including the Gunners, London rivals Spurs, Sunderland, Blackburn and Fulham. But the Moroccan admitted: "I don't really believe a move to Arsenal is possible any more. Bordeaux are trying to convince me to stay."
Source: NOTW
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