Arsenal are set to rival fellow London club Chelsea in the race to sign Lille forward Victor Osimhen at the end of this season – as per reports.
Osimhen has been in top form for Lille this season scoring 13 goals in just 27 Ligue 1 games for the French side and Chelsea have been keeping tabs on him over the past couple of weeks.
The Blues want to bring in a new centre-forward this summer in order to partner Tammy Abraham upfront and after missing out on Timo Werner, Lampard was expected to shift focus to the Lille forward.
Now Arsenal are set to rival Chelsea in the quest to sign the 21-year-old Nigerian international which could very well start a bidding war between both the Premier League clubs – ultimately helping Lille get a massive transfer fee for Osimhen.
Arsenal or Chelsea: Which club will Osimhen join?
Victor Osimhen is a top-quality striker and he still has four years left on his current deal at the club which is why many reports claim Lille will put him in the same bracket as Nicolas Pepe.
This means the Ligue 1 club might demand something in the region of £70 million and this could very well work in favour of Chelsea since the Gunners are in no position to spend such an absurd amount of money in the summer.
The Gunners though are expected to part ways with Alexandre Lacazette with clubs like Barcelona interested him. So if Mikel Arteta can manage to sell the Frenchman at a handsome price, he could then use that money to try and bring Victor Osimhen.
Also, as things stand, Arsenal will not be playing in the Champions League this season while Chelsea look set to retain their spot in the top division of Europe. And this could be yet another reason why the 21-year-old choose to snub a move to the Emirates and join Chelsea in the summer.
But one massive drawback for Chelsea is that Lampard already has a top striker like Tammy Abraham meaning if Osimhen was to join the Stamford Bridge outfit then he might have to prove his worth to his new boss.
And if he decides to join Arsenal instead of their London rivals, the Nigerian international might be an automatic selection in the first XI next season, if the club were to sell off Alexandre Lacazette.
