Liverpool boss Arne Slot has dropped a hint that may boost Arsenal's hopes of signing Martin Zubimendi.

Reports in recent weeks have seen the speculation surrounding a potential move for the Gunners to sign Zubimendi ramp up. The Real Sociedad star has a €60million (£50.8million) release clause in his contract with the La Liga club and has been heavily linked with a move elsewhere.

football.london understands that Arsenal have a long-standing interest in Zubimendi. The Gunners are believed to have been monitoring the midfielder ever since 2023, when the rumours of a potential interest in his signature first emerged.

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Liverpool are reported to have have made an attempt to sign Zubimendi last summer, only for the Spain international to reject a move to the Premier League. Fast forward six months and Zubimendi's future is the subject of speculation once again, this time with Arsenal reportedly leading the race to complete a deal.

Liverpool also continue to be mentioned as showing an interest in signing Zubimendi, and now their head coach has offered a hint. Slot has admitted that the Merseyside club did try and sign Zubimendi last year, but has hinted that the emergence of Ryan Gravenberch in the No.6 role may mean they no longer need to sign a player of the Sociedad star's profile.

"The [No.6 roles] are important to me, but they are especially important for our attackers," said Slot in an interview with Rio Ferdinand as part of TNT Sports' Champions League coverage.

"We feel we have attackers that are pretty special - the front three - and we've got five or six of them.

"So the only thing we have to make sure is that these players come into promising positions having the ball a lot. Therefore you need two sixes who can bring the ball to them.

"With Macca (Alexis Mac Allister) and Ryan [Gravenberch], we have two players who can bring the ball to the likes of Mo Salah, to Cody Gakpo, to Darwin Nunez, to Diogo Jota.

"And we have chosen to bring in two players who were maybe a bit more attacking-minded in the past. Macca played a lot of times as a No.10 for Brighton, Ryan [Gravenberch] played more as an attacking midfielder but he is comfortable on the ball.

"I even think the player we wanted to bring in [Zubimendi] - I think that’s pretty much out in the open now - he was also a player who was really comfortable. He’s still a player who could bring the ball from the last line to our forwards.

“This is a special quality Ryan [Gravenberch] has. The ability to turn away from his man. He is one of a few holding midfielders, pivots, whatever you call them in this country, who can create an overload by a dribble.

"Most of these players pass a lot but to create an overload by a dribble, you don't see that much. You don’t see that much as a No.6. I think the strength of this team is that we defend as 11. He has two centre-backs behind him, too. Virgil van Dijk helps a lot with that too in the Dutch language to make it clear to him."