Much of Arsenal’s summer has been dominated by talk of adding another elite attacker, but perhaps one of the answers has been hiding in plain sight throughout pre-season.
Christos Tzolis arrived from Club Brugge for £34 million without quite the fanfare that would have accompanied some of Arsenal’s more glamorous attacking targets.
A few weeks later, the Greek international is making that fee look increasingly interesting.
Tzolis delivers when it matters
Tzolis had already impressed during Arsenal’s pre-season programme, contributing goals and assists while quickly settling into Mikel Arteta’s attack.
Against Manchester City in the Community Shield, however, he produced his biggest performance yet.
The 24-year-old registered two assists in Arsenal’s emphatic 3-0 victory, first helping create Kai Havertz’s goal before supplying Martin Odegaard after the break.
It wasn’t simply the assists either.
Tzolis looked confident taking players on, created opportunities and gave City problems from Arsenal’s left throughout the afternoon.
That’s particularly encouraging because Arsenal haven’t signed a player based purely on potential.
Tzolis arrived after an outstanding final season with Club Brugge in which he produced 22 goals and an incredible 29 assists across all competitions.
Those are extraordinary numbers, even allowing for the obvious step up in standard he now faces in the Premier League.
(Photo by Alex Pantling/Getty Images)
Do Arsenal still need another winger?
That’s where things become interesting.
Arsenal have been linked with some enormously expensive attacking players this summer as Arteta looks to make an already strong squad even better.
Nobody should be declaring Tzolis the finished article after a handful of appearances, and Premier League football will provide much tougher tests over an entire season.
But his early performances are certainly encouraging.
Arsenal wanted greater productivity from the left side of their attack and have signed a player coming off a 51-goal-contribution season who has immediately started creating goals for his new teammates.
Perhaps the £34m signing wasn’t merely brought in to replace Leandro Trossard.
If Tzolis can translate anything close to his Club Brugge productivity into English football, Arsenal may already have found a considerably bigger part of their attacking solution than many expected.
After two assists against Manchester City and an excellent pre-season, he’s certainly earned the opportunity to show us.
What do you think, Gooners? Has Tzolis done enough to start against Coventry on Friday, and could Arsenal already have their long-term answer on the left wing? Let us know in the comments.
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