London, Aug 26 : Chelsea are taking a 70million pound hit in their bid to snatch the Premier League title back from Manchester United.

Billionaire owner Roman Abramovich has given the go-ahead to seal the 27million pound signing of Real Madrid striker Robinho this week, The Sun reported.

And he is writing off 43million pound just to get rid of Andriy Shevchenko and Shaun Wright-Phillips.

Sheva returned to AC Milan on a 12-month loan last night, two years after joining Chelsea for a British record 30.8million pound.

While Philips is heading back to Manchester City for 9million pound, which amounts to 12 million pound loss on the England winger, who cost Chelsea 21 million pound when they bought him in July 2005.

Talks have opened between the clubs and City boss Mark Hughes has been given the all-clear by owner Thaksin Shinawatra despite his current problems.

Chelsea boss Phil Scolari has made it clear Philips does not figure in his plans and the player did not even make the bench for Sunday's 1-0 win at Wigan.

While Scolari has been told the Robinho deal is just a matter of hours away.

With Shevchenko gone and Didier Drogba out for another month with a knee injury, Nicolas Anelka is currently Chelsea's only fit striker for Sunday's game with Tottenham.

Chelsea's latest financial figures revealed the club is 736 million pound in debt with 578 million pound of that owed to Abramovich in an interest-free loan.

ANI