07/16/2026
ARSENAL FC UPDATE:
Christos Tzolis: Arsenal set to have a new 'warrior mode' winger who is the perfect replacement for Leandro Trossard
Christos Tzolis, Arsenal's first outfield signing since becoming Premier League champions is a fairly surprising one. But nobody will be more stunned about this deal than Norwich fans.
In 2021, Tzolis became the Canaries' record signing for £10m, played just 30 times in two years in an injury-hit spell, then left without a trace.
He even made his Premier League debut for Norwich at the Emirates in that September, when Arsenal were bottom of the table and without a point under Mikel Arteta in 2021.
Now he's back in England and joining the Premier League champions, having got 51 goal contributions in 52 games last season for Club Brugge.
Yet Tzolis is set to arrive at Arsenal as a record-breaker. At £34m, he will be Greece's most expensive player and the Belgian Pro League's biggest export.
But he also arrives as Leandro Trossard's direct replacement. And a closer look at Tzolis' profile shows a lot of similarities between the two players.
The first is the profile. Through those who know him, the Greek forward is a winger but like Trossard, he is also a No 10. Last summer, Crystal Palace strongly considered Tzolis as a replacement for now-Arsenal star Eberechi Eze.
"He's able to fulfil different roles," Hayk Milkon tells Sky Sports, who was Club Brugge's assistant manager for Tzolis' entire time in Belgium up until February of this year.
"Coming from the left side - giving him this space to start wide and then find the moments to get more inside - that's where he's at his strongest.
"If he's assigned to play really wide to get these one-on-ones, he's able to do it. But he's always strongest the closer he is to the goal. Whenever he's more central, you can expect him at any moment to attack the space."
Another similarity between Tzolis and Trossard is their availability. Trossard had an exemplary injury record at Arsenal and was only injured for four matches in three-and-a-half-years. All of those four games came in his final season in north London.
Tzolis, meanwhile, had a similar record at Club Brugge. The longest he ever spent on the sidelines he had at the Belgian club was two matches - despite being one of the most energetic and intense players on the team.
"He's a guy that works a lot," adds Milkon. "He runs a lot of kilometres in the game, but also at high speeds and his sprint distance.
"Anyone can do that once in a week. He was doing it every three or four days with the Champions League. And his performances stayed stable."
A final comparison between Trossard and Tzolis is a slight temperament - bred from a desire to win. Arteta once called affectionately Trossard "a bit of a moaner" at Arsenal through his constant complaining in training and to referees.
And one of Tzolis' big areas of improvement, according to his former coach? "Emotional stability," says Milkon.
"He doesn't like to get kicked. Nobody likes it, obviously. But he doesn't. He's targeted very often. You need to stop him somehow. And the opposition were not able to stop him.
"But when he gets those kicks or when referee decisions are poor for him, then it might get a little bit difficult for him to stay in the game."
It is called "warrior mode," according to Milkon. And while Tzolis has that slight temperament, it does not translate to toxic or being a bad team-mate.
When Club Brugge were crowned Belgian champions in the season just gone, team-mates joined Tzolis in a classic Greek Sirtaki dance on the champions podium - showing how he grabbed the hearts and minds of the dressing room.
"They did this quite often," adds Milkon. "And you don't do it with a guy that is not so loved in the group.
"As a person, he's an amazing lad. He makes the team like a family because he's so open, so easy going, always smiling, always making jokes in the dressing room, relaxed outside of the pitch.
"But when we go on the pitch, he's immediately in warrior mode. And every single training session is to win. It's not to just play around. And if he doesn't succeed in things, he might sometimes try to force it.
"But, yeah, he's a winner. And outside the pitch, he's just the most amazing guy that you can have in a dressing room.
"He might seem sometimes a little bit stubborn, but he is open. He is willing to learn. He has his way and his feelings on the pitch, of course, and you need to respect that.
"But when you give some instructions and you show him why he should do things, he's always open because he wants the best."
Does Gyokeres form prove Tzolis' goal numbers require scrutiny?
Obviously, what helped Tzolis win over the Club Brugge dressing room was his goal record, with 22 goals and 29 assists across all competitions last season.
But this was not a one-off season, as he has scored at least 20 goals in each of his last three campaigns at Brugge and Fortuna Dusseldorf.
His ball-striking ability was perfected in Belgium. "In the training sessions, you see immediately his powerful strike that he has," says Milkon.
"He always uses this quality to eliminate the goalkeeper because it's so powerful. It's unbelievable. But we managed to add the precision to that."
But of course, those goal numbers should be scrutinised due to the league they are being played in. The Belguim Pro League sits as the eighth strongest league in the world, according to Opta's Power Rankings - one place below the EFL Championship.
Arsenal discovered last season that Viktor Gyokeres' goals in Portugal were more difficult to translate into the Premier League - his 39 league goals for Sporting CP became 14 top-flight strikes in his debut Arsenal season.
Data from the Champions League, which is a fairer way of understanding Tzolis' potential, presents the Greek winger in a better light.
The 24-year-old was one of the most shot-friendly players in the Champions League last season, sitting in great company in most shots per 90.
What helped Tzolis get into good areas was his ball-carrying ability. Again, Tzolis competed with some of Europe's best in terms of carrying the ball towards a shooting chance last season.
The numbers are even more impressive given Tzolis played for a 'lesser' side in the Champions League last term. Club Brugge averaged around 46 per cent possession last season - towards the bottom of the list of clubs that took part from the league phase onwards - before being knocked out of the play-offs.
Alongside Tzolis in both lists is Khvicha Kvaratskhelia of Paris Saint-Germain, who Arsenal explored a deal for earlier in the summer. Coincidentally, the Georgian winger was scouted by Maurizio Micheli at Napoli, who now works as part of Andrea Berta's talent-spotting team at Arsenal.
Tzolis may not be the most outstanding name Arsenal sign in the transfer market and despite struggling at Norwich, a move for the Greek winger makes a fair bit of sense.
