Former Norwich City winger Christos Tzolis is already off the mark for new club Arsenal (Image: PA)
Former Norwich City winger Christos Tzolis is already off the mark for new club Arsenal (Image: PA)
Christos Tzolis has hit the ground running with a debut Arsenal goal on his first public outing for the £34m ex-Norwich City flyer.
Tzolis struck in a 4-1 win for the Premier League champions against Spanish outfit Girona, and Gunners’ chief, Mikel Arteta, is predicting a big season for the 24-year-old.
The Greek international has returned to England for a second stint after his failed Carrow Road move, scoring just three goals in 30 senior City appearances following an £8.8m transfer in 2021.
Tzolis has since turbo-charged his career with free-scoring spells in Germany and Belgium to land a high-profile move to the English champions.
"First of all, the way he has adapted to the club, the team, and the connections he’s already generating with the boys, I think you’re going to love the player," said Arteta, in his post-match media at the weekend.
"He’s a player that has the goal between his eyes. He’s really good at linking up. He’s got a lot of similarities with Leo (Trossard) with the things he can do and the spaces he can occupy.
"Then the work rate he has, he’s a boy that comes with so much hunger and wants to prove this is a dream for him."
Tzolis’ new club rounded off a week-long training camp with an emphatic friendly win in a sold-out Motilivi Stadium in Catalonia.
"I’m very pleased," said Arteta, speaking to his club’s official channels. "In many aspects, obviously, we have worked on a lot of things this week with a big group of players, with the senior players that we had, with the Brazilians that returned during the week, with a lot of our academy players as well.
"A lot of things that we wanted to test, especially during the game — they were delivered in a brilliant way and overall very happy."
Tzolis’ former Norwich team mate, Christoph Zimmermann, admitted recently City never managed to get the best out of the young winger.
"He did need some time to settle into English football, and in that year, we didn’t fully see his potential," he said, speaking to Hayters.
"We didn’t fully see what he’s capable of doing, and he needed some time to develop. You could see why we wanted to sign him or why we did.
"But it would be way too easy for me to say now that you could always see he was going to play for Arsenal and one of the top teams in the Premier League one day."