Martin Zubimendi appears set for a transfer to Arsenal, bringing to an end a saga which saw him linked extensively to Liverpool. Mikel Arteta has long since had the backing of the dressing room over a move.

Liverpool and Arsenal are going head to head for the Premier League title, with Nottingham Forest an unlikely third horse in the race. Arteta finds himself losing ground after a testing few weeks, with injuries to key players mounting up.

The looming transfer arrangement for Zubimendi will not see him join until the summer, so it does not address Arsenal's severe shortage in attack, with Gabriel Jesus the latest to be sidelined for a significant spell. Even so, it will go down as a coup for Arteta, after Liverpool sporting director Richard Hughes had pitched the midfielder a vision of leading the Arne Slot era.

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With Ryan Gravenberch in imperious form on the way to a healthy gap at the Premier League summit, Anfield officials have been able to more or less forget about the aborted pursuit. But Zubimendi's quality is beyond question, a fact that has long been noted by one Arsenal star.

Even before all of the Liverpool links, Kieran Tierney was an Arsenal voice in favor of Zubimendi, whom Arteta has reportedly been tracking for more than a year. "You have world-class players like Martin Zubimendi, Mikel Merino, Brais Mendez," the full-back told the Guardian last February, reflecting on his loan spell at Real Sociedad.

"It’s not that people don’t think they’re good, it’s just that if you’re only watching the Premier League every week, it’s hard to know. They’re world class."

Tierney himself has found himself down the pecking order under Arteta. Despite recovering from a hamstring injury, he is yet to make it off the bench in the league this season, featuring for seven minutes in the recent FA Cup defeat to Arsenal.

But his review of Zubimendi speaks volumes. Merino, of course, has already ended up at the Emirates, and it seems Tierney can now prepare for another "world-class" reunion — with his feedback no doubt taken into account by Arteta.

Liverpool.com says: Whether Tierney gets to call himself teammates with Zubimendi again for very long remains to be seen, with his own future in doubt. But he's certainly right about the midfielder's world-class pedigree.

Arteta would have been aware of Zubimendi without the tip-off from his defender. But if Tierney's assessment is shared by the rest of the dressing room, then Arsenal should at least benefit from a lift when the transfer coup is finalized — although the Gunners might need more than that to take the fight to Liverpool in what's left of the current campaign.