Chelsea reportedly plan to move for both Napoli's Victor Osimhen and Brentford's Ivan Toney in the January transfer market amid their search for attacking reinforcements.
Mauricio Pochettino oversaw a major attacking reshuffle in his first few weeks at the club, bringing Christopher Nkunku, Nicolas Jackson and Deivid Washington to Stamford Bridge for his debut campaign.
However, Nkunku will not be making his Premier League debut for another several weeks due to a severe knee injury, while Jackson has scored just one top-flight goal for the West London giants so far.
In addition, the former Villarreal man - who has been criticised for squandering a number of gilt-edged chances - has already accumulated five yellow cards this season and will serve a suspension for Monday's West London derby with Fulham, where Chelsea are at risk of going without a top-flight goal for the fourth game running.
As a result, Pochettino will only have the inexperienced Washington and Armando Broja - who is still working his way back from a serious knee problem - as his central options, which could lead to the Argentine deploying a makeshift striker at Craven Cottage.
The Chelsea boss has hinted that his side will try to strengthen their offensive ranks in January, and according to The Guardian, both Osimhen and Toney are on the Blues' winter wishlist.
Chelsea were reportedly one of several teams hoping to prise Osimhen away from Napoli in the summer, but the Partenopei managed to retain the services of the Nigerian, who scored 26 Serie A goals en route to the title last season.
However, Osimhen's future with the Scudetto holders was recently plunged into fresh doubt following a bizarre social media scandal, which saw the official Napoli TikTok account post two separate videos appearing to mock the player.
The first clip was taken from last weekend's Serie A clash with Bologna, showing Osimhen appealing for a penalty with a high-pitched voice dubbed over the top before he sent his spot kick wide.
Another inexplicable video compared the former Lille man to a coconut, leading to Osimhen's agent threatening legal action against the club, who have since affirmed that they never intended to ridicule the striker.
Napoli did not publicly apologise to Osimhen, who started and scored in a 4-1 win over Udinese on Wednesday, but his agent has supposedly decided not file a lawsuit against the Italian champions after all.
Nevertheless, the saga has inevitably led to fresh links with a move away for Osimhen, but Arsenal, Manchester United and Saudi Arabia giants Al-Hilal are also said to be keeping a close eye on the situation.
Meanwhile, Toney has served half of his eight-month suspension for multiple betting offences, and he has been given the green light to rejoin Brentford training ahead of his return to competitive action in January.
A switch to Arsenal has been strongly mooted for Toney, and Bees boss Thomas Frank has admitted that the England international may be allowed to leave for the right price, but Brentford could still demand around £80m to sanction a winter sale.
In a bid to drive the price down, Chelsea are thought to be willing to offer players in exchange for Toney, who is understood to be keen on a January exit from the Gtech Community Stadium. body check tags ::
