Chelsea have been urged to swoop in and seal a deal for Thomas Partey as Arsenal stall on a transfer.
The Atletico Madrid midfielder has been heavily linked with the Gunners for months as they look to bolster the spine of their squad.
But the north Londoners are struggling to meet the Spanish club's €50m (£45.3m) valution.
Chelsea meanwhile have spent heavily in recent months in an effort to close the gap on the Premier League's leading lights.
They have payed out more than £200m on the likes of Kai Havertz, Ben Chilwell and Timo Werner.
And Rio Ferdiand reckons the signing of Partey, to play alongside N'Golo Kante and protect a defence that has been criticised, would complete the perfect summer.
He told BT Sport: "I think a huge thing for them is to stop conceding goals.
"I think Frank would have looked at it last season and three of the back four that will be playing today are new players.
"He’ll have seen that, a lot of goals conceded and I think the most conceded in 22 years at the club. More importantly we reports today of Partey coming in in that central area.
"I don’t think he’s happy with the likes of Kovacic or Jorginho. You can see that because he’s chopping and changing in those positions.
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"Getting someone like that in to protect the back four or five along with Kante goes a long way to nulifying the goals against."
The Blues kept a clean sheet in their 4-0 win over Crystal Palace on Saturday.
Before that though they they have failed to shut a team out in their opening three fixtures, conceding six goals in that time.
Frank Lampard has moved to sure up his backline with new additions in goal, at centre-back and left-back.
Last term his Chelsea side shipped 54 goals en route to a fourth place finish.
