Christos Tzolis has revealed how Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta is different to any other manager he has played under. The Greek winger joined the Gunners last summer in a £34 million move from Club Brugge, returning to England after a spell at Norwich City.
Tzolis on Arteta's unique approach
Tzolis had an underwhelming period at Carrow Road before moving to Belgium, where he lifted the Pro League title last season, which helped propel him to the Emirates Stadium. He has just returned from a hamstring injury on international duty that kept him out for a month, but he made a return to action in the 1-0 win over Liverpool at Anfield on November 1.
Tzolis has spoken of his admiration for Arteta being a big part of why he wanted to move to north London, and he explained to Novasports how the Spaniard differed from any head coach he had had previously.
Pre-match routines and personal talks
"He does a lot of things before the matches, some alert games, in the locker room to see the players' readiness," he said. "He always has different ideas before each game and approaches it differently."
"I mean, I haven't seen that with any other coach. In the first talk we had in the summer, he asked me about my life, about my life outside of the game as well, about football of course. And I spoke for 45 minutes, for sure, and 10-15 minutes as coach, so he was very open to hearing what I had to say."
