Arsenal’s pre-season has been far from smooth, with the Gunners winning just one of their three warm-up fixtures ahead of the new campaign.
Defeats against Real Betis and Borussia Dortmund have caused concern, while their Spanish and English contingent only returned to training earlier this week.
One bright spot has been the form of new signing Christos Tzolis, who has made an immediate impression following his arrival at the Emirates Stadium.
Tzolis replaced Leandro Trossard, who departed for Besiktas at the age of 31 after several consistently impressive seasons operating on Arsenal’s left-hand side.
Mikel Arteta has spoken warmly about the Greek winger, saying: “He’s a player who’s very direct. He’s got the goal between the eyes. I think really good at linking up. He has a lot of similarities with Leo [Trossard] in a lot of the things that he can do and the spaces he can occupy.”
Arsenal paid £34m to bring Tzolis back to English football, and he has already contributed three goal involvements across three pre-season appearances, including a goal against Girona and an assist for Ethan Nwaneri against Dortmund.
Last term, Tzolis scored 22 goals and assisted 29 in the Belgian Pro League, but questions remain over whether that level of output will translate against the Premier League’s top sides.
Despite Tzolis’s promising start, Arsenal are reportedly pushing to strengthen further on the left flank, with Juventus forward Kenan Yildiz emerging as a primary target.
According to Tutto Juve, Arsenal are making a fresh move for the 21-year-old despite being told at the start of the window that he was not available for transfer.
The Gunners had earlier failed to land their top target Morgan Rogers, who joined Chelsea in a £117m deal, while Vinicius Junior ultimately signed a new contract with Real Madrid.
Yildiz is valued at €100m (£85m), making him a more affordable option than either Rogers or Vinicius, and Arsenal’s sporting structure under Andrea Berta sees the deal as worth exploring.
Italian football expert Danny Corcoran has described the Turkiye international as possessing a “[Kylian] Mbappe-like ability” to dart past opponents and bamboozle them with his trickery.
Yildiz recorded 10 goals and six assists in league football last season, while his underlying numbers suggest he could thrive at a higher level than Serie A.
Compared to all players across Europe’s top five leagues in 2025/26, only Bruno Fernandes and Romano Schmid created more open-play chances than Yildiz, who registered 67.
Only Vinicius recorded more chance-creating carries than Yildiz’s 37, which adds further weight to the case for Arsenal to pursue him as an alternative to the Brazilian.
Yildiz also completed 2.2 successful dribbles per 90 minutes compared to Tzolis’s 1.1, and won more ground duels at 4.4 per 90 against 3.5, metrics Arteta has long valued in his squad.
Yildiz also lost possession less frequently than Tzolis per 90 minutes, suggesting he would cope well with the physical and tactical demands of Premier League football.
At just 21 years old and already operating at an elite level in Serie A, Yildiz represents exactly the type of high-ceiling talent Arsenal have been targeting this summer.