Arsenal are leading the race to sign Tammy Abraham on loan with a purchase clause, but reports differ over how advanced the situation is.

The Sun report that Chelsea are prepared to let Tammy Abraham join Arsenal on loan this season, with the Gunners emerging as favourites ahead of Tottenham Hotspur and West Ham United.

Chelsea want £40m for the player, but the size of the fee is causing problems this summer. So a loan with an obligation to buy based on appearances is the proposed compromise.

Arsenal are free to focus on transfers at the moment, with their upcoming pre-season fixtures cancelled, so you might want to head over to mobilebet.com to fill time until they’re back. Coincidentally, their next confirmed fixture is against Chelsea themselves.

However, Fabrizio Romano claims there are no advanced talks between Arsenal and Chelsea for Abraham. Arsenal like the striker, Chelsea are aware of Arsenal’s interest, but there’s no official bid just yet.

The Beautiful Game Podcast and The Telegraph previously broke that Arsenal were interested in Abraham. We pointed out then that the Gunners would likely need to sell first, with funds to sign a striker limited and plenty of centre-forwards already on the books.

But if Abraham joined on loan with an obligation to buy, that would free Arsenal to loan one of their own strikers out with an obligation. So it would allow them to be a bit more flexible and give them another year to raise the money.

It’s certainly a formula that makes the deal a little more likely, but based on Romano’s report there’s still nothing at all close.

Boyhood Arsenal fan Abraham scored 12 goals and assisted four in all competitions last season, despite only playing 1,533 minutes. That’s a goal contribution every 96 minutes, an impressive ratio.

Nonetheless, he fell out of favour under Thomas Tuchel and is looking for a summer move as a result.