Arsenal Transfer Rumor: Gunners Ahead of Liverpool in Pursuit of £8M Dutch Striker?

English Premier League club Arsenal are reportedly in top position to sign Dutch Eredivisie side FC Twente's hitman, Luuk de Jong, who has also attracted the interest of Arsenal's domestic rivals, Liverpool.

De Jong, 21, has impressed in the Eredivisie this season and a whole host of clubs have taken notice of the youngster who, at the moment, seems to be a very lucrative prospect. Now, according to the Dutch media, he is being watched by scouts from different clubs in nearly every game.

The scouts have now been joined by the ones sent by Gunners boss Arsene Wenger, who watched de Jong in the game against Utrecht. Twente won the game by a convincing margin of 6-2 and even though the Dutchman failed to score in the game and was substituted late, he still managed to put in an impressive assist.

Although earlier reports suggested that a £6 million bid would be enough to seal the deal for the player, Twente, reportedly, has upped the price tag to £8 million. The price could even go higher, depending on the number of bidders for de Jong. However, for now it is a two-way race, between Arsenal's Arsene Wenger and Liverpool's Kenny Dalglish to sign the player, as soon as January.

At the moment, both Arsenal and Liverpool look set to afford the youngster but new reports have suggested that the Gunners are leading the race as de Jong would prefer a move to London if he ends up leaving the Dutch club in January.

Liverpool, however, are still hanging on to hopes of signing the player and have sent scouts to the De Grolsch Veste Enschede to monitor de Jong, according to a footylatest.com report.

Luuk de Jong, who became the top goalscorer and top assists provider for FC Twente in the 2010-11 season, has made more than 55 appearances for the club and has managed to score more than 20 times, since he arrived from De Graafschap in 2009.