Chelsea have stolen a march on Arsenal in the race to sign Ricardo Rodriguez from Wolfsburg.
According to a report in The Sun Antonio Conte has been in touch with the defender’s agent while Arsenal wait to find out whether Kieran Gibbs will be staying on at The Emirates.
Crystal Palace have been strongly linked with Gibbs who hasn’t had any contact talks despite being in the final 18 months of his current deal.
Conte is doing everything possible to build on Chelsea’s lead at the top of the Premier League and has received glowing reports about left-back Rodriguez from his Bundesliga scouts.
A fee of around £21m would be needed to get Wolfsburg to part with the Swiss internationalist who impressed at Euro 16.
With money to spend on top of the Oscar deal Conte could strike a quick deal to boost his side’s title hopes and also dent Arsenal’s prospects at the same time.