Frank Lampard wants to strengthen his attack by signing Moussa Dembélé and Chelsea are considering whether to test Lyon’s determination not to sell the striker this month.

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Chelsea are looking to improve their attacking options after having their transfer ban lifted by the court of arbitration for sport last month and have tracked Dembélé since he was at Celtic. Lampard admires the 23-year-old, who joined Lyon in the summer of 2018, and believes he could provide quality competition for Tammy Abraham, who has scored 14 goals in all competitions this season.

It has repeatedly been suggested that Chelsea could try to convince Lyon to sell by including Olivier Giroud as a makeweight in any deal. Giroud wants to leave and Lyon are one of the clubs monitoring the France striker, who has interest from Internazionale, Bordeaux, Aston Villa and Newcastle.

Publicly, however, Lyon have indicated they have little interest in selling Dembélé this month. The French club insisted last week that the France international will not be allowed to leave and their chairman, Jean Michel Aulas, dismissed the idea of a deal being struck during the January transfer window. “Moussa Dembélé will not leave because he wants to stay to win something with Lyon,” Aulas said on Wednesday. “There have been offers for him and for other players but none of those that we want to keep will leave in January.”

It is thought that Dembélé will not push to leave if Lyon rebuff Chelsea’s advances, which could force Lampard to consider other options. Chelsea’s manager has made it clear he wants to bring in more creativity and firepower. While Abraham has done well this season, the 22-year-old could do with some more support. Michy Batshuayi and Giroud have both disappointed when deputising for the England striker.

However many of Chelsea’s targets could be difficult to secure this month. While Lampard holds a strong interest in Jadon Sancho, the England winger is unlikely to be allowed to leave Borussia Dortmund until the summer. The same is true of the highly rated Red Bull Leipzig forward Timo Werner, while Chelsea have reservations over whether Wilfried Zaha represents value for money. Crystal Palace want £80m for Zaha, who was the subject of a failed loan bid from Bayern Munich earlier this week.

Chelsea, who are also tracking Villarreal’s Samuel Chukwueze and CSKA Moscow’s Fyodor Chalov, also want defensive reinforcements. They are yet to decide whether to activate the buy-back clause that would allow them to sign Nathan Ake for £40m from Bournemouth. The clause is only active until the end of this month and Ake has been linked with Arsenal, Manchester City and Tottenham.

Marc Guehi is poised to join Swansea City on an 18-month loan deal. The promising 19-year-old defender has made two starts for Chelsea in the Carabao Cup this season and moving to the Liberty Stadium will see him reunite with his former England under-17 manager, Steve Cooper. Swansea have also signed Liverpool’s Rhian Brewster on loan.