The Chelsea chief confirmed the Blues are looking to trim the squad in light of the imminent arrival of Robinho and the club are set to make a loss of £11m on Shaun Wright-Phillips, who is set to complete a £10m return to Manchester City.
It is understood he was in Manchester yesterday and City boss manager Mark Hughes thinks a deal can be done.
He said: "We're very hopeful. We're obviously keen to bring him to the club if we can."
Chelsea, who are also looking to get rid of right-back Juliano Belletti, have already taken a massive loss on Andriy Shevchenko, who re-joined AC Milan this week.
Tottenham, who travel to Stamford Bridge on Sunday, are cautiously optimistic that they will be able to secure the signing of both Arshavin and Roman Pavlyuchenko by the end of the weekend.
Striker Pavlyuchenko is due to have a medical in London today before completing a £16m switch from Spartak Moscow, but Spurs are desperate to sign a second forward, so freeing Berbatov to join United.
They have been in protracted negotiations with UEFA Cup winners Zenit St Petersburg over Arshavin for the past two months and believe they have finally convinced them to lower their asking price.
Meanwhile, Chelsea should get a favourable draw in the Champions League this afternoon (5pm) as they are top seeds according to the UEFA coefficients.
They will avoid Barcelona, Inter Milan and Real Madrid, as well as the other English teams - who are also all in pot one.
