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From Russia With Love
Supposedly, the world’s elite were all in for Arshavin following the Euros, but as Zenith clung onto Arshavin through the summer transfer window, they could do nothing to stop their talisman moving to Arsenal for £15m (still a club record signing) in January 2009. Arshavin was a star signing for Wenger at the time and he certainly started his Arsenal career playing like one. Arshavin was truly magical in his opening games for Arsenal and playing like the player the world had witnessed in Euro 2008 and over the past two seasons at Zenith. His first goal for Arsenal came at the Emirates Stadium, as he took on the Blackburn defence with a clever piece of trickery before scoring from a tight angle. His most memorable display was still to come.
On an April night, in one of the greatest games in Premier League history, Arsenal drew 4-4 at Liverpool – Arshavin scored all 4 in what has to go down as one of the greatest individual performances in modern Premier League times. Arshavin even seemed to find how good he was funny, as he ran away celebrating his fourth goal, holding up four fingers and seemingly laughing to himself. Despite only playing 12 games for Arsenal in the 2nd half of 2008/09 season he finished with 7 assists and 6 goals – effectively Arshavin had had a major part in ensuring that Arsenal remained in the treasured top 4. The first ten months of 2009 would be kind to Arshavin, but the end of the year would leave him sullen and well en-route to his downfall.
Downward Spiral
For me, the last three years have been a total waste of a genuine footballing talent. It is quite hard to decipher who was truly to blame for the fall of Arshavin. Of course, a large portion of the blame has to be placed on the player himself as he was the one ultimately delivering such tepid performances; however, how much of the blame does Arsene Wenger claim? It was his management that led to his regression after all. Wenger had stated in the buildup to the 2009/10 season that Arshavin would be a key component in a new look Arsenal and that the Russian would be even better now that he knew “how English football works.” There were still glimpses of the superb, as Arshavin scored a 30-yard-screamer at Old Trafford at the beginning of the 2009/10, but that was to prove to be a highlight of very few for Arshavin that season – in fact for about three years.
Arshavin’s form declined so much so that he firstly found himself a perennial substitute and by 2011 he was even struggling to get in the squad. The misery was made all the more worse when the Gooners fans turned against the Russian and jeered his every move (especially if his move was to step from the substitutes’ bench and out on to the pitch). The Russian’s play was at first seen as a sort of lethargic brilliance (a la Dimitar Berbatov), but now he was just seen as lazy and for modern football fans, the appearance of laziness translates to the fans as uninterested and lacking passion for the red shirt. It must be emphasised how much Arsenal fans adored Arshavin in his first 10 months or so at the club to show how far his star had plummeted. So where on Earth did it all go wrong for this once mercurial Russian?
