Arsenal's New Attacking Solution: Christos Tzolis
Almost five years ago, Christos Tzolis walked out at the Emirates as an anonymous teenager in a struggling Norwich side. It was his Premier League debut, a 19-year-old winger thrown in on the left against an Arsenal team on the brink.
Arsenal had lost three from three, had not scored a goal and sat bottom of the table. Lose to Norwich and Mikel Arteta’s position would have been hanging by a thread.
Tzolis barely laid a glove on them. He did not register a shot. Arsenal scraped a 1-0 win, Arteta clung on, and from that nervous afternoon the club’s modern era was effectively born.
Fast forward to this summer and the picture could hardly be more different. The same player who drifted through that first appearance has reappeared in north London as something else entirely: the most dangerous attacker in Arsenal’s pre-season.
From Norwich footnote to £34m solution
Tzolis arrives at Arsenal unrecognisable from the winger who failed to score in 14 Premier League games for Norwich. At 24, he comes off a blistering campaign with Club Brugge: 22 goals and 29 assists in all competitions, the kind of numbers that make recruitment departments sit up.
Yes, those figures were compiled in Belgium, a league Opta ranks as the seventh strongest in the world. The asterisk is obvious. The output is just as hard to ignore.
Inside Arsenal, they saw more than just a stat sheet. They liked his ability to play across the front line, his comfort off either foot, his resemblance in profile to Leandro Trossard. They liked his character. And they believed his technical level would raise the bar among their forwards.
Above all, they saw a finisher and a final-ball specialist. Tzolis has now scored or assisted in each of his last 15 competitive club appearances, racking up 25 goal involvements in that stretch. That ruthless streak is precisely what Arsenal’s attack lacked last season, even as they marched to the title.
Gabriel Martinelli finished the league campaign with a single goal. No Arsenal player beyond Viktor Gyokeres reached more than seven in the Premier League. Martin Odegaard topped the assist charts with just six. For all the debate about Arteta’s structure and control, the blunt truth is that his forwards did not punish opponents often enough on their own.
Arsenal’s front line has felt streaky for a while now. Bursts of brilliance, then long, quiet spells. Injuries have played their part, disrupting rhythm and availability across the forward positions. Tzolis, by contrast, missed only five matches in two seasons in Belgium — three through illness.
Reliability, as much as explosiveness, appealed.
A summer that changes the conversation
The early evidence in red and white has been emphatic. Helped by a full fortnight of pre-season and a farewell friendly with Club Brugge before flying to London, Tzolis hit the ground running.
He created against Borussia Dortmund. He created against Real Betis. He bent in his first Arsenal goal against Girona, curling into the far corner with the kind of precision that translates in any league.
Then came the Community Shield, a different level of scrutiny and intensity. Tzolis rose with it. His deft header teed up Kai Havertz for Arsenal’s second, and he added another assist by picking out Odegaard inside the box.
The manner of it all caught the eye. Wearing the No17 shirt, gliding forward with tight touches before darting inside to deliver the decisive action, he evoked memories of Alexis Sanchez. The comparison is romantic, but the echoes were there.
Arteta did not hide his admiration afterwards.
"He's fitting, he's a really intelligent boy and he has a massive quality which is when he's in the last 20-30 metres," the manager said. "He's so composed to pick people out around the box or to finish actions. I'm really impressed with him."
Tzolis himself acknowledged the Sanchez link when he signed.
“Actually, I knew that he wore the number 17. I watched a lot of football and he was a top player for Arsenal, as a left winger always,” 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 number 17.
“It’s nice (though). Alexis Sanchez had number 17 - so I hope I will have the same success.”
A statement on Martinelli — and the left flank
The clearest indication of how Arsenal view Tzolis came not in a quote, but in a team sheet. Gabriel Martinelli, once seen as the long-term answer on the left, did not make the squad for the Community Shield. The club are open to selling him.
That stance is a loud show of faith. Right now, Tzolis is being backed as the first-choice left winger.
It is a position that has troubled Arsenal for several seasons. So much of their threat has flowed down the right, through Bukayo Saka and Odegaard, while the opposite flank has flickered rather than burned.
Now, with Riccardo Calafiori stepping aggressively from left-back and Tzolis driving ahead of him, Arteta may finally be close to the balance he has been chasing.
Arsenal still want to strengthen in attack. The clamour for a marquee signing has not gone away, and the club share that ambition. Eberechi Eze, for instance, offers the ability to operate from the left if required.
If no sale materialises before the window shuts, Martinelli remains a live option to challenge Tzolis. A more progressive passer in midfield, like his Brazil team-mate Bruno Guimaraes, could yet help unlock the version of Martinelli that once electrified the Emirates.
But the hierarchy of the left wing, as it stands, is clear. It belongs to Tzolis.
Marquee dream vs present reality
When Arsenal moved for Tzolis, the plan was not to anoint him as the centrepiece of a new-look attack. He was supposed to arrive alongside a bigger, glossier name. That may still happen — this window or the next.
If and when that day comes, his minutes could shrink. That is the reality of life at a club with title ambitions and Champions League expectations.
Right now, though, the equation looks different. Arsenal need almost all of their forwards to raise last season’s numbers if they are to defend their crown. They need more goals, more assists, more cold-blooded decisions in the final third.
For Tzolis, the brief is simpler. He just has to keep doing what he has been doing for the past year and a half.
The clamour for a superstar signing will roll on. But as the season looms, the question grows louder: are Arsenal already holding the attacking answer on their left touchline?
