Goals, Set-Piece Ability, and Versatility: What Christos Tzolis Would Bring to Arsenal

According to reports, Club Brugge’s Christos Tzolis seems set to join Arsenal. What would he bring to the Premier League champions?

Arsenal may have won the Premier League for the first time in 20 years last season, but they still entered the summer transfer window with plenty of business to do.

One of the expected positions for the Gunners to target was a new left-winger and, following the departure of Leandro Trossard to Turkish side Beşiktaş in a deal worth £15.3 million, it seems Mikel Arteta has his replacement lined up: Christos Tzolis.

The Greek forward is expected to leave Club Brugge after a deal worth £34m – a Belgian Pro League record transfer fee – was reportedly agreed with Arsenal. Tzolis has spent two seasons in Club Brugge colours, where he made a name for himself as what can only be described as an output machine.

The 24-year-old has scored a total of 33 goals for the club since his arrival from Norwich City in 2024, but it was his 2025-26 season that would have really caught the eye of Arteta and the Arsenal board.

His monstrous domestic campaign, where he scored 17 goals and assisted a further 23 in 36 games, guided Club Brugge to their 20th league title. These 40 goal contributions were 16 more than anybody else in the league, with teammate Nicolò Tresoldi ranking second with 24 across the season.

Similarly to Trossard, Tzolis is right-footed and operates predominantly on the left, but can alternatively be deployed centrally, either as a striker or an attacking midfielder; he has also featured on the right for Club Brugge, demonstrating his versatility, something that many of Arteta’s signings possess in abundance.

Tzolis’ numbers across the board during the 2025-26 season were extremely impressive, but it must be stated that the level of competition in the Belgian Pro League is, of course, significantly lower than in the Premier League.

According to the current Opta Power Rankings, the Belgian Pro League is the eighth-toughest in world football, with an average team rating of 81.8. This is just below the English Championship, which ranks seventh with an average team rating of 82.2.

In comparison, the Premier League’s average team rating of 91.7 puts it comfortably at the top of the ranking, ahead of the Italian Serie A, which comes in at 86.2. This means a big adjustment that Tzolis will have to make rather quickly – English football fans are not exactly the most forgiving or patient.

Still, his numbers in Belgium last season cannot be overstated. When compared to the 12 other players who scored 10+ goals in the top flight, Tzolis also ranked highly in other metrics. He created the most chances (135), completed the most dribbles (40), and made the most progressive carries (359) by quite some distance – Thorgan Hazard ranked second with 215.

Arsenal’s set-piece efficiency has become a hot topic over the last few seasons, but it is clearly something that the club not only take very seriously, but are reaping the rewards of. They scored 19 goals from corners in the Premier League in 2025-26, a record by any team in a season in the competition. Interestingly, this is an area of strength for Tzolis, something Arteta is sure to appreciate in the Greek.

Of his 135 chances created for Club Brugge in the league last season, 52 were from set pieces (38.5%). In comparison to the Gunners’ set-piece specialists, 42.9% of Declan Rice’s chances created were from dead-ball situations, and 19.7% of Bukayo Saka’s the same.

With Rice and Saka carrying real fitness concerns into the 2026-27 season, Tzolis may well be a strong contender to take over set-piece duty at the beginning of Arsenal’s title defence.

In the UEFA Champions League, Tzolis proved that the fruits of his talents are not only limited to the Belgian Pro League, and that he is also able to perform at a high level against the very best clubs across Europe, especially in comparison to the man he is set to replace.

Comparing his 2025-26 Champions League season to Trossard’s, it becomes clear that Tzolis is a very astute replacement and is viewed as somebody who can come in and have a similar – and instant – impact on the squad. In terms of output, Trossard recorded five goal involvements (1G 4A) to Tzolis’ three (2G 1A), but Tzolis more than held his own in various underlying metrics.

The Greek forward (59) completed 15 more attacking carries than Trossard (44), and completed more passes into the final third (26 vs 16). Furthermore, while he only recorded one assist to Trossard’s four, Tzolis (13) actually created almost double the chances compared to Trossard (7). You could also argue that had he been playing for a stronger team such as Arsenal, Tzolis’ output would likely have been even greater.

Both players have high-output and create plenty of chances, but stylistically Tzolis would bring something slightly different to Arsenal’s left-hand side; he is more of a ball-carrier and prefers to take his man on as a way to fashion opportunities, whereas Trossard often prefers to slow a situation down a notch.

Furthermore, the fact that Tzolis is also seven years younger than Trossard and should continue to grow and develop under the tutelage of Arteta would be nothing but a boost to the squad.

After joining Arsenal in January 2023, Trossard became at the very least a cult hero, and arguably even a club legend for netting what proved to be the title-winning goal against West Ham United. He will always be remembered fondly for his ability to provide big moments in big games. It would be optimistic to expect Tzolis to come in and provide that same big-game output from day one.

Should the move go through, it remains to be the Gunners’ only attacking addition, with the club reportedly also still in the market for a marquee signing to further bolster the frontline.

Tzolis’ arrival may not be the big-name signing Arsenal fans have been clamouring for, but it could be a very clever bit of business.

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