The Blues have agreed a £30m fee with the Foxes for the England midfielder Drinkwater.
A report from BBC Sport claims he finally arrived at the club’s training ground to finalise the switch around 10.00pm on Thursday – just an hour before the transfer window slammed shut.
Early this morning Chelsea had lodged a third bid for Drinkwater.
That was believed to be an offer of £27m plus a further £5m in add-ons.
But they are believed to have upped the ante again in order to persuade Leicester to cash in on the 27-year-old.
Chelsea were trying to force the issue through even though Leicester insisted they would only do business if they could get a replacement in.
Sporting Lisbon’s Andre Silva is the man they want but that deal is taking time to finalise.
City officials have been working for the last 24 hours to try to come to an agreement with the Portuguese club.
Chelsea have upped the ante in pursuit of Drinkwater having missed out on Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain who is ditched them to join Liverpool.
Meanwhile, Riyad Mahrez could also be on his way to the Premier League champions.
The Algerian international was given permission to leave his national teams training base this morning to finalise his transfer out of Leicester City.
Mahrez is currently also locked in talks with Stamford Bridge chiefs after they had an offer believed to be around £45m accepted.
Barcelona were also reported to be interested in the 2015-16 title winner but it appears Antonio Conte who has won the race for the wide man.
