Chelsea are launching a swap bid for Lyon striker Moussa Dembele.

The Sun says the Blues have earmarked Dembele as their striker Frank Lampard believes is needed to help take the goalscoring burden off Tammy Abraham.

But Lyon have taken a tough stance by releasing a statement insisting they do not want to lose their top forward this month.

Yet Chelsea are refusing to give up on trying to lure the 23-year-old to Stamford Bridge believing the player himself wants to join them.

And they are considering throwing wantaway veteran Giroud as a sweetener to help convince the French club to agree a fee worth around £40million.

Lampard has made signing a striker a priority in the belief that Abraham is having to take too much responsibility for firing the goals to boost their top four hopes.