Crystal Palace star Marc Guehi is said to favour a transfer to Arsenal or Liverpool ahead of Manchester City. Guehi nearly moved to Anfield last summer before the proposed deal collapsed, leaving his future up in the air. The centre-back's contract is due to expire in the summer.

Palace manager Oliver Glasner has admitted that Guehi could leave Selhurst Park this month if an appropriate offer arrives. Manchester City, Liverpool and Bayern Munich are all monitoring the 25-year-old closely. However, current table-toppers Arsenal, who stretched their advantage at the summit following a goalless draw with Liverpool on Thursday, have also reportedly entered the race.

The Athletic's Sam Lee has suggested in an interview for the Let Me Talk podcast that City trail Liverpool and Arsenal in the pursuit of the Palace defender.

He said: "On Monday night, I was told by somebody who knows what's going on at City, but also I think probably Palace as well, he said he thinks Guehi wants to stay until the summer and he prefers Liverpool [to City] in any case.

"Somebody else messaged me on Twitter and I know he's very good on other club stuff, he was like: 'Yeah, he wants to stay until the summer - and he prefers Liverpool and Arsenal'.

"I was like: 'Well I haven't heard Arsenal', but that kind of tallies what I'd been told the night before."

Whether Arsenal will make a bid or wait until the summer when Guehi's contract expires remains to be seen.

However, the Gunners were interested in Guehi last year before they decided to take a different route and signed Cristhian Mosquera from Valencia, while Piero Hincapie also joined from Bayer Leverkusen.

Liverpool had a bid of £35million plus £5m in add-ons accepted last summer, but failed to finalise the deal on transfer deadline day.

Palace reportedly know they can secure a similar fee in January, with City particularly interested after losing key defenders Josko Gvardiol and Ruben Dias to injury, while John Stones is also sidelined.

"Honestly, I don't know what will happen," Glasner said about Guehi earlier this week.

"If you're just valuing sports, everyone in the club will say Marc has to stay. The chairman will tell you the same. But it's not one-dimensional. Nothing in life is one-dimensional.

"So if you see the financial situation, it's very important. Everybody wants him to play for Crystal Palace, sign a new contract and stay here forever.

"That's what everybody will tell you. On the other side, there's the situation the contract ends in summer and, if somebody is coming, there will be a moment when the club says, now the financial issue is more important than the sport issue.

"I'm not so naive not to know that if a massive offer comes from City and Marc wants to do it, it will happen."