Arsenal sporting director Andrea Berta (Picture: Getty) Arsenal chiefs were full of praise for summer signing Christos Tzolis at the Champions League draw and told Club Brugge of his exploits in training. Greece international Tzolis signed a long-term contract at the Emirates Stadium in July after Arsenal agreed a £34m deal with Club Brugge. Mikel Arteta targeted the 24-year-old after sanctioning the exit of Leandro Trossard, while Arsenal also put Gabriel Martinelli up for the sale. Tzolis has enjoyed a bright start to his career in north London, helping the Premier League champions win their first four games of the season ahead of Wednesday’s Champions League opener against Napoli. Exclusive Premier League previews Get ahead of the start of the season with our weekly football newsletter. Sign up now for free. After bringing Tzolis to the club, Arsenal sporting director Andrea Berta insisted the Greek winger would ‘raise the technical level of our squad’ and bring a ‘strong mentality to our team’. Those high up at the Emirates Stadium were equally positive about Tzolis when bumping into officials from Club Brugge during last month’s Champions League draw in Monaco. President of the Belgian club, Bart Verhaeghe, said Arsenal were raving about the £34m signing and revealed he had been ‘coming out on top’ in various tests in training. Arsenal summer signing Christos Tzolis (Picture: Getty) ‘At the Champions League draw, I saw people from Arsenal and they showed a tremendous amount of respect,’ Verhaeghe told Het Belang van Limburg. ‘”What a player you’ve delivered”, they told me. They said he has an excellent attitude, is the best in the physical tests and is a great guy, too.’ In a separate interview with Het Laatste Nieuws, the Club Brugge chief added: ‘Arsenal said “what a player” when they approached me after the draw. https://www.instagram.com/p/Dc9S3CDETkp/?hl=en&img_index=1 ‘Christos had come out on top in all the tests. That’s what we do here: deliver a ready-made product. Because we know what those top teams are looking for. We prepare our players for that kind of football. ‘Back then, people laughed at our holistic approach to nutrition, sleep, special glasses… Today, it’s all standard practice. We were the innovators from day one, and we’ll keep innovating. ‘Today, we’re selling players to Arsenal and Inter Milan, two teams that have reached the Champions League final in the last two years. {"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Mikel Arteta speaks before Champions League match against Napoli","contentUrl":"https:\/\/videos.metro.co.uk\/video\/met\/2026\/09\/08\/3761798954835882587\/480x270_MP4_3761798954835882587.mp4","description":"Arsenal's Mikel speaks to the press on Tuesday ahead of their Champions League match against Napoli on Wednesday at the Stadio Diego Armando Maradona.","duration":"T1M34S","height":270,"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/i.dailymail.com\/1s\/2026\/09\/08\/22\/111127717-0-image-m-34_1788904072537.jpg","uploadDate":"2026-09-08T22:46:27+0100","width":480} To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video Up Next Previous Page Next Page window.addEventListener('metroVideo:relatedVideosCarouselLoaded', function(data) { if (typeof(data.detail) === 'undefined' || typeof(data.detail.carousel) === 'undefined' || typeof(data.detail.carousel.el_) === 'undefined') { return; } var player = data.detail.carousel.el_; var container = player.closest('.metro-video-player'); var placeholder = container.querySelector('.metro-video-player__up-next-placeholder'); if (placeholder) { container.removeChild(placeholder); container.classList.add('metro-video-player--related-videos-loaded'); } }); ‘And at the same time, we’re recruiting directly from the Premier League, from a club like West Ham. 10 years ago, that was unthinkable.’ Last month, Arsenal defender Ben White revealed Tzolis was ‘beating everyone’ in pre-season testing. ‘Christo
⚽ Champions League news from the 5.45pm BST kick-off⚽ Live scores | Follow us on Instagram | Read Football DailyHarry Kane, Jude Bellingham and Declan Rice have been nominated for this year’s men’s Ballon d’Or while Alessia Russo and Alex Greenwood have been nominated for the women’s award.The 30 men’s and 30 women’s nominees were revealed by France Football magazine on Tuesday, with the winners to be announced at a ceremony in London on 26 October. Ousmane Dembélé, who won the men’s award last year, has been nominated again, as has his France teammate Kylian Mbappé, who made history when he overtook Lionel Messi for all-time World Cup goals (22) at this summer’s tournament. Continue reading...
Team arriving late at their hotel in southern ItalyJurriën Timber in squad for first time since MayArsenal’s preparations for their opening Champions League game against Napoli have been disrupted after they were caught up in the travel chaos that affected airports across the UK.Mikel Arteta was forced to cancel his pre-match press conference at the Stadio Diego Armando Maradona on Tuesday after Arsenal’s flight was severely delayed by an air-traffic control issue. The Arsenal manager and his players are understood to have remained at the club’s training ground in Hertfordshire as they waited for the delay to pass after completing their morning session as usual. Continue reading...
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