Arsenal are stepping up their pursuit of Club Brugge winger Christos Tzolis, with the 24-year-old reported to be very keen on joining the Gunners this summer.
The north London club is said to be in direct contact with those representing Tzolis, with Arsenal’s backroom staff having been impressed with the Greek winger for a while.
David Ornstein of The Athletic has reported that Tzolis could command a transfer fee of around £35m, a figure that would allow Arsenal to pursue other high-profile targets simultaneously.
The signing could prove transformative for Viktor Gyokeres, who ended his first season back in England as Arsenal’s top scorer in both the Premier League and all competitions.
Despite his impressive return, Gyokeres averaged just 0.6 shots on target per game, highlighting how consistently underserved he was by those around him throughout the campaign.
Gyokeres scored 14 Premier League goals, yet Arsenal’s assist chart tells a revealing story, with Martin Odegaard and Leandro Trossard both leading the squad with just six apiece.
Only Declan Rice and Bukayo Saka reached double figures for big chances created, with Rice registering 17 and Saka contributing 12, partly boosted by their set-piece deliveries.
Pundit Jamie Carragher had predicted before last season that Mikel Arteta would favour Kai Havertz over Gyokeres for big occasions, a prophecy that proved accurate when Havertz started last month’s Champions League final.
The omission of Gyokeres in Budapest underlined his at-times unconvincing performances in the number nine role, despite the Swede having arrived on a bumper £63.5m deal.
Tzolis produced remarkable numbers in Belgium last season, recording 23 assists and 17 goals in the Pro League, numbers that point to a player operating at an elite creative level.
For context, Bruno Fernandes led the Premier League in assists last season with 21, while also creating 33 big chances and averaging 3.9 key passes per game.
Tzolis averaged 3.8 key passes per game and created 25 big chances in Belgium, putting him in a similar statistical ballpark to Fernandes despite competing outside Europe’s top five leagues.
The former Norwich City man previously scored 22 goals for Fortuna Dusseldorf in Germany’s second tier on loan, before returning to Club Brugge and producing back-to-back outstanding campaigns.
Tzolis scored 16 goals and registered nine assists in 2024/25 before surpassing those numbers considerably last season, demonstrating consistent improvement across successive campaigns.
Gyokeres was the only Arsenal player to reach double figures for league goals in 2025/26, a statistic that underlines just how much the burden fell on the Swede’s shoulders.
Reports linking Trossard with a move to Besiktas suggest the left-wing position will need to be filled this summer, making the Tzolis pursuit even more pressing for Arteta.
The level of service Gyokeres received at Arsenal contrasted sharply with his time at Sporting CP, where he hit an extraordinary 97 goals in 102 appearances.
A creative winger capable of generating big chances consistently could finally unlock the best of Gyokeres in an Arsenal shirt, something the club has been missing all season.
If the deal for Tzolis goes through at around £35m, it would represent significant value given the level of output the Greek international has demonstrated over recent seasons.
This move could prove a masterstroke for Arteta as he looks to reshape his forward line and finally give Gyokeres the consistent service he needs to justify his price tag.