Christos Tzolis: Arsenal's New Left-Sided Weapon
At Arsenal’s sun‑drenched camp in Spain, the talk keeps drifting towards a fantasy: Vinicius Jr in red and white, tearing down the left at the Emirates. But on Saturday in Girona, the reminder came sharply that the club already have a new left‑sided weapon – and he wasted no time introducing himself.
Christos Tzolis, 24 years old, first game, first goal.
Given the ball wide on the left, he drove at his defender with a kind of quiet certainty, chopped inside and whipped a low effort towards the far corner. A slight deflection helped it in, but the intent was all his. One stride, one cut, one finish. A debut statement.
Mikel Arteta has already told those around him that Arsenal fans will enjoy this one. The Catalonia cameo backed that up. The obvious question, then: how does a £34m signing feel about the club still chasing a superstar left winger to play in “his” zone?
“Obviously I'm confident as a player, so I don't think about the future and what the club will do in this position,” he told reporters at Arsenal’s training base. His eyes stayed fixed, his voice level. He sounded like a man who has already decided what he can control.
He prefers to talk about the work in front of him. The chance to be in from day one. The friendlies now, the “official games” to come. This pre-season, he knows, is his opening.
“I'm thinking how to improve and settle as fast as possible in the club because I have the opportunity to train directly with the team from the beginning of the season,” he said. “So it's a chance to play directly from the beginning – and then it's up to me to show the qualities and what I can bring in the team. I'm pretty confident that I will show it in the next games.”
This is his first sit‑down with the media since leaving Club Brugge, where he produced a staggering 51 goal contributions in 52 matches last season. The numbers say one thing. The man behind them gives off another: polite, measured, but with an edge of steel that fits a dressing room of serial competitors.
He was back home in Thessaloniki when his agent called to say the Premier League champions wanted him. Other clubs circled, tried to muscle in. A few conversations with Arteta ended the debate. His mind was made up.
Arteta believes Tzolis can grow into the kind of cult status Leandro Trossard quietly built before his move to Besiktas this summer. That is no small billing. Not every supporter is convinced yet that the Greek can match the Belgian’s ruthless output and versatility. Tzolis’ plan to win them over is simple.
“He doesn't want [me] to do things differently than I did in Club Brugge,” he said of his manager. “I think [I need] to be myself and to show on the pitch all the passion and desire to win. Because I really like to win games and to give everything.
“If I give 100 per cent for every game, every duel, who doesn't like this? That's the best thing for a football player and then always you have the support from the fans.”
‘Leonidas’ arrives
Ask Tzolis to define himself and he gives you three words: direct, creative, work rate. Inside the camp, though, another trait has grabbed attention – his engine.
In one of Arsenal’s big pre-season tests, a brutal 1.4km shuttle run, he finished first. The drill is simple but savage: 20 metres and back, 40 and back, 60 and back, each distance five times, all at full tilt. It breaks players. Tzolis topped the lot.
One of the fitness coaches has already given him a nickname: “Leonidas”, after Gerard Butler’s Spartan king in 300.
“There are not all the players here,” Tzolis pointed out, keen not to sound like he is crowning himself. “There are still some players that have to do the tests, of course. But so far I'm first in the fitness test. It's pretty hard.”
He had a head start. Pre-season with Brugge began two weeks earlier, and he kept himself sharp through the summer. “I came here ready,” he said. Arsenal’s staff noticed.
The Leonidas tag fits in more ways than one. He steps into the space vacated by another “Leo” in Trossard. And in the mythology of his homeland, Leonidas led a small, defiant Greek force into a hopeless battle and made it unforgettable.
“Small Greek force” could easily describe Tzolis. He is not the tallest. He doesn’t tower over full-backs; he hunts them.
His game, he says, has been shaped by watching David Villa. “His body style is similar to mine,” Tzolis explained. “We are not the tallest as strikers but in finishing terms, he was top level.
“I'm not saying I'm the level of David Villa but we have some similarities. He was not a striker, striker. He was an inside forward – a left pocket player who always went for goals.
“I see myself like this because I'm not always a typical wide winger. I go inside a lot and Villa, as a winger/inside forward, was top level.”
He also sees echoes of another former Arsenal favourite: Alexis Sanchez. The Chilean arrived in north London in 2014 and took the No 17 shirt. This summer, Tzolis picked the same number.
“Of course, I watched a lot of football and he was a top player for Arsenal as a left winger,” he said. “He's one of the players I looked up to when I was younger. And also I see some similarities with him.
“But it's not the reason I took the No 17. It was more that there were not so many options for the lower numbers, and there was also No 18 and 19 available. I had them in the past, so I didn't want to use them again.
“So, I went for the No 17. It's nice. Alexis Sanchez had No 17 – so I hope I will have the same success.”
Inside a champion’s camp
Tzolis walks into a dressing room chasing something that has eluded Arsenal for almost a century. Not since Herbert Chapman’s side of the 1930s has the club successfully defended a top-flight title. That is the scale of the task.
From his first days at London Colney and now in Spain, the Greek winger has been struck by the intensity that surrounds even the smallest detail.
“For the pre-warming up in the gym to go to training and the intensity and how serious everybody is,” he said when asked what surprised him most. “From gym exercises to recovery sessions, everyone is demanding and trying to do as best as possible and that shows the high-level standards of this team.
“Even in pre-season, everyone is serious for the friendly games, for the training, for every exercise. Of course you expect it, but I didn't know that before.
“When I see the training, and how hungry every player is for every training drill, that means everybody's ready to compete at the highest level. And when you're a player of Arsenal, you want compete for every title that's possible.
“So, it's not only about the Premier League, it's about all the competitions we are playing for. And I see a clear mindset [from the players] and that everybody is on the same page to win titles here. I have seen that in training, and when you train like that in the game, it makes it even better.”
He has lived this scenario before. At Club Brugge, he joined newly crowned champions and watched the title slip away the following year. That experience has shaped his view of what comes next.
“To defend a title I think you don't have to think about it,” he said. “It's more or less more difficult for the other teams because the pressure is there, not on the team who won the title.”
That is the mentality he brings into a squad already brimming with belief. Arsenal may yet push for Vinicius Jr. They may not. But as pre-season miles build in the Spanish heat, their new “Leonidas” is already running at full tilt, cutting inside, and quietly preparing his own battle on the left.
If he backs up the talk of work rate and winning with the kind of end product he showed in Belgium, the debate over who owns that flank might not last very long.
