LONDON: Arsenal and Chelsea are strengthening attack for the assault on the hegemony of Manchester City and Liverpool at the top of the Premier League.

The Gunners are responding to the disappointment of a fifth-place campaign while the Blues are intent on emerging from beneath the long shadow of Roman Abramovich.

Gabriel Jesus is the man to whom Arsenal will look for goals after the departures of Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang in January and Alexandre Lacazette this summer. Arsenal and Chelsea are also rivals to buy Brazilian left winger Raphinha from Leeds.

Jesus is still only 25 but had grown impatient at never being a regular starter at City despite 85 goals in 236 appearances over five years. His prospects receded even further after City’s purchase of Erling Haaland and the clubs have agreed a £45m fee. All that remains is a medical before the transfer is confirmed.

Other clubs in England and abroad had inquired but Jesus was keen to renew a connection with Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta who had been a coach at City. Arsenal have also signed midfielder Fabio Vieira from Porto for £34.2m and now find themselves in a bidding war with London rivals Chelsea for Raphinha.

Arsenal had a £35m offer for the Brazilian rejected last week. While they were preparing a new bid so Chelsea stepped in with a £55m offer of their own. Raphinha wants Champions League football and had been linked initially with Barcelona. However the Catalan club would need first to sell Frenkie de Jong and possibly Ousmane Dembele. By contrast Chelsea’s new owner, Todd Boehly, has money available.

Raphinha has proved a bargain signing for Leeds since he arrived from Rennes two years ago for £20m. He has scored 17 league goals and provided 12 assists in a struggling team under Marcelo Bielsa and latterly Jesse Marsch.

Chelsea are already confident of concluding the £55m purchase of England forward Raheem Sterling to strengthen attack for manager Thomas Tuchel. The Blues’ last two summer transfer campaigns have misfired with the disappointing goals returns of, first, Timo Werner and then Romelu Lukaku.

Boehly has taken a hands-on role since completing the £4.25bn purchase of Chelsea from Abramovich. He has a difficult act to follow compared with the 19 trophies harvested under the Russian oligarch. Boehly may not have helped himself by removing the executives who had been in hands-on charge at Stamford Bridge.

He has replaced American Bruce Buck as chairman and agreed a pay-off with executive director Marina Granovskaia who had been in charge of transfers negotiations and contracts. In addition popular former goalkeeper Petr Cech has quit as technical and performance adviser.

Cech, 40, had taken up the role in 2019. Previously he had spent 11 years with Chelsea as a player, winning 13 trophies including four Premier League titles and the Champions League. He said: “It has been a huge privilege to perform this role at Chelsea for the past three years. With the club under new ownership, I feel now is the right time to step aside.”

Chelsea fans, judging by social media, are uneasy at wholesale changes in the corridors of power so soon.

The club have inquired about the availability of Michael Edwards who has stepped down as sporting director at Liverpool but so have Real Madrid and Paris Saint-Edwards. Edwards is reported to have told all suitors that he wants to take a year’s sabbatical from the game.

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