{"id":655961,"date":"2025-06-20T11:21:19","date_gmt":"2025-06-20T15:21:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/?p=655961"},"modified":"2025-06-20T11:22:15","modified_gmt":"2025-06-20T15:22:15","slug":"arsenal-close-martin-zubimendi-transfer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2025\/06\/20\/arsenal-close-martin-zubimendi-transfer\/","title":{"rendered":"Arsenal Close In on \u2018Second-Best Player in the World&#8217; &#8211; Only Formalities Left"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">According to a report by <\/span><a class=\"editor-rtfLink\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/athletic\/6353153\/2025\/06\/20\/arsenal-transfer-martin-zubimendi\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">The Athletic<\/span><\/a><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">, Martin Zubimendi has travelled to London to meet with Arsenal officials and complete his transfer to the North London club. The Gunners will be eager to close the gap on Liverpool, and bringing in a player of Zubimendi&#8217;s ilk will help them do just that.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2>Arsenal Close to Completing Martin Zubimendi Deal<\/h2>\n<h3>Star Labelled \u2018Second-Best in the World\u2019 Nears Arsenal Switch<\/h3>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Zubimendi is in London to complete the formalities of a transfer to Arsenal. The Spanish midfielder has been long admired by Arsenal, with their pursuit heavily driven by manager Mikel Arteta. It was reported by The Athletic <\/span><a class=\"editor-rtfLink\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/athletic\/6413081\/2025\/06\/10\/arsenal-transfer-latest-news-manchester-united-liverpool-chelsea-barcelona-real-madrid\/?source=twitteruk\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">earlier this month<\/span><\/a><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">, that Spanish giants Real Madrid were also admirers of Zubimendi, but ultimately decided not to pursue the player.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>Read More<\/strong>: <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2025\/06\/16\/arsenal-chelsea-nico-williams\/\" target=\"_self\">Arsenal and Chelsea Dealt Huge Blow as European Rivals Have \u2018Best Chance\u2019 for \u2018Elite\u2019 Forward<\/a><\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Many Arsenal fans will be clamouring for attacking reinforcements. But with Thomas Partey&#8217;s contract expiring and the departure of Jorginho &#8211; it leaves a hole in their squad, and that will be more than filled by Zubimendi.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3>What Qualities Martin Zubimendi Will Bring<\/h3>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Martin Zubimendi was previously described as <\/span><a class=\"editor-rtfLink\" href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/GuillemBalague\/status\/1846162996285813122?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1846162996285813122%7Ctwgr%5E65c12e2c069343af9bb9dd0a5e276be36107cf81%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&amp;ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.empireofthekop.com%2Fwp-admin%2Fpost.php%3Fpost%3D262421action%3Dedit\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">the second-best player in the world<\/span><\/a><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">, <\/span><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">by the Spanish national team manager Luis de la Fuente Castillo, and would be an asset to Arsenal.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Zubimendi will anchor the midfield by always being open to receiving the ball deep and starting attacks. He is comfortable in possession and keeps the play ticking over. The 26-year-old would likely become a vital cog in Arteta&#8217;s team, offering stability and class in abundance.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>Read More<\/strong>: <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2025\/06\/14\/arsenal-viktor-gyokeres-manchester-united\/\" target=\"_self\">\u2018Unstoppable\u2019 Player Prefers Arsenal as Destination With Manchester United Deal \u2018Unlikely\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Once the Zubimendi deal is completed, it appears all attention will turn towards a striker, with Arsenal linked to forwards such as Viktor Gyokeres and Benjamin Sesko. The Gunners suffered at crucial times last season, by not having a clinical striker. Whether it is Gyokeres, Sesko or someone else, Arsenal must secure a new striker to improve Arteta&#8217;s attack.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>According to a report by The Athletic, Martin Zubimendi has travelled to London to meet with Arsenal officials and complete his transfer to the North London club. The Gunners will be eager to close the gap on Liverpool, and bringing in a player of Zubimendi&#8217;s ilk will help them do just that. Arsenal Close to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4106,"featured_media":640261,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6,8,30,3,7188],"tags":[32320,9789],"class_list":["post-655961","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-la-liga","category-arsenal","category-news","category-premier-league","category-rumours","tag-arsenal-transfer-rumours","tag-martin-zubimendi"],"modified_by":"Ricky Carroll, Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/655961","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4106"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=655961"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/655961\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":655969,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/655961\/revisions\/655969"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/640261"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=655961"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=655961"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=655961"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}