The spoiler was not a document slipped to a reporter. It was a Fantasy Premier League team anyone could look up.
Christos Tzolis, Arsenal’s £34m summer signing from Club Brugge, had himself in his FPL side ahead of last week’s trip to Liverpool, alongside Arsenal teammates Riccardo Calafiori and Ezri Konsa. All three started at Anfield, where Arsenal won 1-0 on Sunday.
Mikel Arteta’s response came within days. NowArsenal reported that the Spaniard told everyone around the club, players and staff alike, that they cannot have any Arsenal players in their Fantasy squad.
No wholesale ban, just no Gunners
The rule is narrow. Players and staff can still run a Fantasy squad, they just cannot pick anyone on the Arsenal roster, so no selection can accidentally flag a return from injury or a tactical plan to a public audience.
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Tzolis, Arsenal’s No.17, has complied. He used his wildcard to strip every Arsenal player out of his Fantasy squad for the current gameweek, dropping himself, Calafiori and Konsa and replacing them with players from other clubs. An unnamed Arsenal staff member has done the same.
A manager who polices the small details
The episode is in character. Arteta has long carried a reputation for controlling the information flow around his squad, down to routines inside the training ground. A hobby-level FPL pick is not a dressing-room leak in the usual sense, but it told the outside world something about his team before he had chosen to.
The timing makes the fuss easier to understand. Arsenal sit top of the Premier League on 24 points after nine matches, three clear of Manchester City. The club are not giving away edges.
Tzolis’s rewritten Fantasy squad now leans on players from rival clubs, Erling Haaland, Morgan Rogers and Thierno Barry among them, and the new club-wide restriction applies in every gameweek going forward.
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