Christos Tzolis Shines on Arsenal Debut: A New Era Begins

At Arsenal’s training base in Spain, the noise is all about the fantasy. Vinicius Jr, the marquee name, the superstar left winger who could yet arrive before the window closes.

On Saturday in Girona, the reality on the pitch quietly introduced itself.

Christos Tzolis picked up the ball on the left, drove at his man with no hesitation, chopped inside and whipped a low shot into the far corner, helped on its way by a slight deflection. One touch, one statement. On his Arsenal debut, the £34m signing from Club Brugge looked like a player entirely unfazed by the conversation swirling around his position.

Arsenal may dream of Vinicius. They already have Tzolis.

‘It’s up to me now’

The 24-year-old sits down with reporters in Spain for his first extended interview as an Arsenal player. There is no hint of insecurity about the club’s pursuit of another left winger.

“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 says. The delivery is calm, matter-of-fact.

His focus is narrower, more immediate.

“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, to play the friendly games and then to go to official games.

“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.”

Those numbers from Brugge – 51 goal contributions in 52 matches last season – already tell part of the story. The rest comes through in person: direct, honest, polite, but with a clear edge of ambition. This is not a player arriving to make up the numbers.

He was back home in Thessaloniki when his agent called to say the Premier League champions wanted him. Other clubs tried to muscle in, but conversations with Mikel Arteta settled his mind. The Arsenal manager sees a potential cult figure, a successor of sorts to Leandro Trossard, who left for Besiktas this summer.

Winning over the dressing room is one thing. Winning over the stands is another. Tzolis’ plan is disarmingly simple.

“He doesn't want [me] to do things differently than I did in Club Brugge,” Tzolis explains of Arteta’s early guidance.

“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 describe himself and three words come back quickly: direct, creative, work rate. Inside the camp, though, he has already picked up a different tag.

He finished first in one of Arsenal’s big pre-season fitness markers: a brutal 1.4km test run at full tilt. The drill is simple, the execution anything but – 20 metres and back, then 40, then 60, each distance repeated five times. No hiding places. No shortcuts.

The performance earned him a nickname from one of Arsenal’s fitness coaches: “Leonidas”, after Gerard Butler’s Spartan king in the film 300.

“There are not all the players here,” Tzolis says, careful not to overplay it. “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.

“I had the advantage that I started pre-season also with Brugge so I was already training for two weeks and always I wanted to keep myself fit during summer so I was ready. I came here ready, my fitness level and I was happy that I could show it here as well.”

The nickname fits on multiple levels. He replaces a “Leo” in Trossard. He is a Greek forward arriving to fight for his place in a squad stacked with attacking talent. A small Greek force, taking on a heavyweight league.

It also hints at how he has shaped his game. Tzolis talks with real enthusiasm about the player he studied most closely: David Villa.

“His body style is similar to mine,” he says. “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.”

Another reference point is much closer to home for Arsenal supporters: Alexis Sanchez. Tzolis has taken the Chilean’s old No 17 shirt, a detail that will not go unnoticed in the Emirates stands.

“Of course, I watched a lot of football and he was a top player for Arsenal as a left winger,” Tzolis says. “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.”

The echoes are deliberate but not forced. Villa’s movement, Alexis’ aggression, his own running power and eye for goal. Arsenal are betting that the blend works in England.

Inside a champion’s dressing room

Tzolis steps into a club with history at its back and a target on its chest. No Arsenal side has retained the English top-flight title since Herbert Chapman’s team of the 1930s. That drought is a constant backdrop at London Colney.

The Greek winger has seen the mentality up close in his first weeks.

“For the pre-warming up in the gym to go to training and the intensity and how serious everybody is,” he says when asked what has 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 knows the flip side. At Club Brugge, he joined champions and then watched the title slip away the following season. The experience has sharpened his view of what comes next.

“To defend a title I think you don't have to think about it,” he says. “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 may sound counterintuitive, but it reveals a certain steel. In his mind, the champions set the standard, then let others chase the shadow.

At Arsenal, where the conversation still circles around possible arrivals and big-name targets, Tzolis has already started writing his own story. A goal on debut, a “Leonidas” tag from the fitness staff, a clear sense of who he is as a player.

The club might yet land a superstar left winger. The question is whether, by then, the Greek one has already made that flank his own.