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Chelsea To Beat Manchester City For Number One Transfer Target

Chelsea To Beat Manchester City For Number One Transfer Target

Blues look to have beaten Premier League rivals for highly sought after player.

Ryan Sidle

Ryan Sidle

It's pretty safe to say that Chelsea are going to be Premier League champions this season, there'd have to be some major disaster at the Bridge to stop that. So now Antonio Conte's thoughts switch to next season.

After a bit of a dodgy start to the Premier League for Antonio Conte, culminating in a 3-0 loss to usual Chelsea cannon fodder Arsenal in September, Chelsea have been sauntering to the title.

The Blues changed to a system of three at the back part way through that embarrassment away at the Emirates and have stuck to that formation since, not looking back.

Cahill and Luiz looked all at sea as a back two early in the season but have been rock solid as a back three. Image: PA Images

The loss sparked a run of 13 games without losing, eventually succumbing to Spurs in January, and another run, since that Spurs loss, of eight games unbeaten that is still going.

And Chelsea lead the Premier League by 10 points with just 10 games left, even with Manchester City and Manchester United left to play it looks unlikely they'll not be lifting the title at the end of the season.

So that leads Antonio Conte to concentrate somewhat on next season and with an increase in games with Champions League football he needs to improve the squad's strength in depth.

And according to the Mirror today the Blues are set to beat their Premier League rivals Manchester City for their number one transfer target Virgil van Dijk.

Van Dijk has been very impressive for Southampton, capturing the eye of Chelsea, City, Everton and of course Liverpool! Image: PA Images

The Southampton centre back is likely to cost around £50 million with the Saint reluctant to sell any more of their best players, but we all know how this tends to go.

With the Blues playing three centre backs and John Terry leaving in the summer Conte definitely needs more depth in his squad but it's unlikely the Dutchman would be coming for anything less than first team football.

City's interest in Van Dijk is so well known that his teammates bought him a replica shirt of Pep Guardiola's team for his Secret Santa present in December.

John Stones just wants a friend! Image: PA Images

It would be a blow to the Spaniard if Chelsea were to get the former Celtic centre back as they are desperate for a more reliable partner for John Stones.

In the past Southampton have seen the likes of Adam Lallana, Luke Shaw, Victor Wanyama, Alex Oxlade Chamberlain, Nathaniel Clyne and numerous others leave for the big six clubs.

This summer the south coast team will be desperate to keep hold of their best players but face a huge fight to keep Van Dijk and possibly others.

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