Prior to Sunday's hotly anticipated Premier League showdown between Liverpool and Arsenal, Chelsea were the early league leaders.

Fulham were on the receiving end of some controversial VAR decisions at Stamford Bridge, but it was their West London foes in Enzo Maresca's Blues that would collect a 2-0 victory on Saturday, courtesy of an Enzo Fernandez penalty being tucked away, on top of Joao Pedro scoring yet another strike in his new location.

The former Brighton and Hove Albion hotshot now has five goals and two assists from six blistering appearances for Maresca's men, with the Italian set to try and clinch a deal for another exciting attacker to help out the clinical Brazilian.

Chelsea's last-minute business

Expect Chelsea to be extremely busy as they head into Monday's intense deadline day.

Indeed, there have been various twists and turns emerging from West London over the past few days, with it still unclear whether Nicolas Jackson will leave Chelsea behind for Bayern Munich or not.

An injury suffered by Liam Delap against the Cottagers might well make Chelsea feel less inclined to give up their hit-and-miss striker to the Bundesliga, with an enquiry also being lodged for the services of Sporting rising star Conrad Harder to boost the attacking ranks.

Moreover, away from a last-gasp switch to try and sign Harder, the early top-flight pace-setters also look set to go down to the wire to try and snap up Barcelona star Fermin Lopez.

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As per Fabrizio Romano, via X, the big-spending Blues have officially sent a written proposal to the Catalan giants about signing the explosive attacking midfielder for a fee around the £34m mark.

This development was then followed up by Romano clarifying that the La Liga giants do not want to sell the 22-year-old, with an exit only occurring if the Spaniard wanted to depart the Camp Nou at the last minute.

He could well be tempted by a move away, seeing how instantaneous Pedro has managed to light up Stamford Bridge, with Lopez perhaps entering and making instant waves, too, if a dramatic move is sealed.

Why Lopez could be as impactful as Pedro

When Chelsea snapped up the services of the ex-Seagulls striker this summer, fans of the Stamford Bridge outfit would have been excited by the £55m capture.

After all, heading into his Blues switch, the "exceptional" attacker, as he has been labelled recently by pundit Troy Deeney, had 30 goals and ten assists next to his name from 70 clashes on the South Coast, with Lopez also standing out for his top-drawer numbers in the final third for Hansi Flick's giants.

The 22-year-old has managed to seriously impress those watching on at the Camp Nou over his past few seasons despite regularly being utilised as an impact substitute, with a weighty 19-goal contributions in league action falling into his lap, despite only making 26 starts from 59 overall appearances.

Analyst Ben Mattinson has even dubbed Lopez as being "technically brilliant" with his added presence in Maresca's camp gifting the Blues yet another standout attacking player to complement the likes of a red-hot Pedro and a skilful Cole Palmer. After all, he's already a record-breaker at Barca, a fact illuminated below.

It remains to be seen whether the La Masia academy product would be tempted by a switch to West London away from the comforts of his home patch.

But, there could be a pull here for Lopez to test himself in a new environment, having viewed the instant leading man status handed to Pedro after exiting Brighton.

 FC Barcelona's Fermin Lopez in action with Athletic Bilbao's Mikel Jauregizar

The last few action-packed days of the window always throw up some tantalising rumours, with Chelsea landing Lopez a golden potential deal that could see them maintain their early grip on the top positions in the Premier League.