Christos Tzolis: Arsenal's New Left-Winger Making an Impact
At Arsenal’s training base in Spain, the noise is still about someone who isn’t there. Vinicius Jr, the fantasy signing, the marquee name. But on a hot afternoon in Catalonia, the reminder came sharply that the club have already brought in a left-sided wildcard of their own.
Christos Tzolis didn’t ease his way into an Arsenal shirt. He attacked it.
On debut against Girona, the Greek winger picked up the ball on the left, squared up his defender, drove inside with purpose and whipped a low shot into the far corner, helped on its way by a nick. It was the kind of goal that tells a new dressing room, and a new fanbase, exactly what sort of player has walked through the door.
Mikel Arteta has already predicted that Arsenal supporters will love watching him. The complication, of course, is that Arsenal are still chasing a superstar in his position. So how does a £34m signing feel about the club courting another left winger to stand in front of him?
“Obviously I'm confident as a player, so I don't think about the future and what the club will do in this position,” Tzolis says, speaking to reporters at the pre-season camp.
His focus is narrower. Sharper.
“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.”
This is Tzolis’ first extended conversation since sealing his move from Club Brugge, where he produced a remarkable 51 goal contributions in 52 matches last season. Those numbers scream end product. In person, he comes across differently: direct, courteous, but with a clear edge of ambition.
The call that changed his career arrived in Thessaloniki, his hometown. His agent told him the Premier League champions wanted him. Other clubs tried to muscle in, but a few conversations with Arteta settled the matter. His mind was made up.
Arteta sees a potential cult figure, a successor in spirit to Leandro Trossard, who left for Besiktas this summer. That is a big claim for a player who has yet to kick a competitive ball for the club. Winning over the Emirates crowd is a process, not a promise.
“He doesn't want [me] to do things differently than I did in Club Brugge,” Tzolis explains of his early talks with the 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 describe himself and he reaches for three words: direct, creative, work rate. Inside the camp, though, another trait has grabbed attention.
The 24-year-old finished first in one of Arsenal’s toughest pre-season tests: a 1.4km maximal run, built on repeated 20, 40 and 60-metre shuttles, five times each. It’s the sort of drill that strips away reputation and leaves only conditioning and willpower.
The performance earned him a new nickname from a fitness coach: “Leonidas”, after Gerard Butler’s Spartan king in the film 300.
“There are not all the players here,” he says, 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.
“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 more than one level. He steps into the role vacated by another “Leo” in Trossard. And in Greek history, Leonidas led a small, fiercely committed force against overwhelming odds.
Tzolis is not the biggest physically. He knows that. He has shaped his game around it, studying forwards who made a virtue of timing, movement and ruthless finishing.
One in particular stands out.
“His body style is similar to mine,” he says of David Villa. “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 far closer to home for Arsenal fans: Alexis Sanchez. The Chilean arrived in north London in 2014 and pulled on the No 17 shirt. Tzolis has chosen the same number.
“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.”
Inside a champion’s camp
Tzolis walks into a dressing room still chasing a piece of history. No Arsenal side has retained the English top-flight title since the days of Herbert Chapman in the 1930s. The current group want to change that line in the record books.
For the new signing, the biggest shock has not come with the ball.
“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 has lived this scenario before. At Club Brugge, he joined a squad that had just been crowned champions, only to see the title slip away the following year. The scars from that campaign have left him with a lesson.
“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.”
It is a striking viewpoint for a newcomer: the champions as hunters, not hunted.
Arsenal may still dream of Vinicius Jr. They may yet land another headline act for the left wing. But in the meantime, a driven 24-year-old from Thessaloniki is running until he drops, cutting inside with intent, and answering to the name “Leonidas”.
If he keeps backing up the nickname, Arteta’s search for a cult hero on that flank might already be over.
