Chelsea have joined the race to sign the Brighton striker Evan Ferguson. Brighton are willing to sell or loan the Republic of Ireland international, who has been the subject of interest from Arsenal, Bayer Leverkusen, Bournemouth, Everton Tottenham and West Ham.

Leverkusen were regarded as frontrunners for Ferguson only for their plans to be complicated by Al-Nassr pulling out of a deal to sign Victor Boniface. That left West Ham in a strong position but they risk being outmuscled by Chelsea. Enzo Maresca is keen to bring in a striker to compete with Nicolas Jackson, who has gone seven games without scoring in the Premier League, and Ferguson is well known to the Stamford Bridge club’s recruitment team. Paul Winstanley, Chelsea’s co-sporting director, was previously at Brighton.

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It is unclear whether Chelsea, who have recruited heavily from Brighton during the past two and a half years, want a loan or a permanent deal. It is thought Ferguson, who is recovering from an ankle injury, could be available for £40m. The 20-year-old has scored once this season but is seen as one of the best young forwards in England.

The race for Ferguson is unpredictable. Arsenal need a striker but do not have any domestic loans left and have targeted Aston Villa’s Ollie Watkins. Ferguson would be below Richarlison and Dominic Solanke in the pecking order at Spurs. He would have opportunities to play regularly at Bournemouth, however, who have lost Enes Unal and Evanilson to injury, as well as at West Ham.

Chelsea have alternative options before the window closes on Monday. They remain interested in the Bayern Munich forward Mathys Tel and the Manchester United winger Alejandro Garnacho. Spurs are pushing to sign Tel after holding talks with Bayern but there are doubts over whether they have the funds to complete a deal for the Frenchman.

Other targets for Chelsea include Athletic Bilbao’s Nico Williams and Borussia Dortmund’s Jamie Bynoe-Gittens. They are also tracking the Ipswich forward Liam Delap. Villa, meanwhile, are looking to sign the France defender Axel Disasi and the Portugal forward João Félix from Chelsea, who have agreed a deal for their academy product Harvey Vale to join Queens Park Rangers on a free transfer.

On Friday Maresca opened the door to dropping Robert Sánchez against West Ham on Monday but urged Chelsea’s supporters to stick with the goalkeeper if he keeps his place. No goalkeeper has made more errors directly leading to a goal in the Premier League than Sánchez this season and there are signs that Maresca’s faith is waning. The Spaniard’s fifth mistake came when Erling Haaland scored during last weekend’s defeat at Manchester City and it could lead to him standing down for Filip Jørgensen, who has made two league starts since joining from Villarreal last summer.

Maresca has not made a final call and has tried to stand by Sánchez. A problem, though, is that supporters have been quick to voice displeasure with the former Brighton goalkeepers’ erratic performances. There were ironic cheers for Sánchez after he made an error during the 3-1 victory over Wolves this month.

“The decision, we have two or three days,” Maresca said. “The good thing is any decision I take, I feel good because every time Filip has played he has done well. Filip or Robert, we will see but any decision will be OK.

“The only thing I can say is that we need the fans. We need them, the players need them. Understanding that sometimes, for different reasons, they cannot be happy with the players or with the manager in general. But we need their support because they have to trust our direction.”

Maresca considered whether Sánchez could benefit from being taken out of the firing line “The other day, I was reading about [Gianluigi] Donnarumma that this season with PSG, he was playing always but for some games, Luis Enrique left him out and now he is playing games and doing well,” he said. “Sometimes, for sure, it can be a solution but it doesn’t mean this is Robert’s case.”

Chelsea will still be without Roméo Lavia, Benoît Badiashile and Wesley Fofana against West Ham.