Kieran Tierney says he is unsure what the future holds for him at Arsenal after admitting the left-back role under Mikel Arteta felt “alien”.

Tierney is currently on loan at Real Sociedad for the season and is “absolutely loving it” at the Spanish club, though will miss Wednesday’s trip to Paris Saint-Germain through injury.

The Scotland international had been the No1 left-back at Arsenal until Oleksandr Zinchenko joined from Manchester City in the summer of 2022.

The Ukraine international has changed the way the left-back operates under Arteta by tucking into midfield, which Tierney has found hard to execute.

“At Arsenal the left-back can be one of the most central players in the team,” he told the Daily Mail. “If it's Oleksandr Zinchenko then he is one of the biggest creators from a central position.

“When that got introduced it was alien to me. I had never played centre midfield, I started as a winger. I was trying to learn that when I was at Arsenal.

“When you see how well it works it is hard to question it. My choice was to just get on with it and learn and I got to practise it with one of the best. It’s so natural to Zinchenko, he makes it look so easy.”

Tierney’s loan with Sociedad will expire at the end of the season and it is understood to not contain an option-to-buy clause.

But asked if his future leads back to Arsenal, the 26-year-old said: “It’s hard to say. I loved my time there and I still have two years on the contract. I am very grateful to Arsenal. I don’t know what's going to happen but I am absolutely loving it here.

“I feel I have adapted quite well and I hope I can return the faith the club have shown. This is a very, very talented squad with world-class players and so many have come from the academy. It’s an amazing story.

“Coming here was easier than going to London, and that’s not having a dig at Arsenal because they helped me massively.

“Without the people at the club it would have been 10 times harder to adapt, but I was four years younger and moving from Scotland, it didn’t matter where I went, that was going to be the hardest part.

“It’s an amazing thing to go to play for Arsenal but you still have your hurdles to overcome. Then a couple of months later Covid hits and you don’t get to see anyone for months. The people at Arsenal were all amazing.”