The Mystery of Andrei Arshavin

Andrei Arshavin,well known as “The little Russian” without a doubt is one of the more talented forwards Premier league has seen over the past few years. But what really happened to him ? From an extremely talented and reliable attacker, Arshavin, now is, unfortunately, appearing like an inconsistent performer.

In 2009,Arsenal bought Arshavin from Zenit St Petersburg for a fee of 15 million. Having had a significant impact with Russia in the Euro 2008 where they reached the Semi Finals, Arshavin had the same impact with Arsenal. He burst into the scene with a real positive impact to the team. He had a significant impact in Arsenal’s victories in the first few months he played. He was able to adapt extremely easily to the Premier League conditions and scenarios and was turning out to be a real success for Arsenal.

His best ever performance wearing an Arsenal shirt came against Liverpool in the 2008-09 season, where he stunned the whole world by scoring 4 goals at Anfield. That match eventually ended 4-4. It was one of the best ever individual performances by an Arsenal player for the past decade and then Arshavin became really popular among the fans. In no time, Arshavin became a very important member of the Arsenal team, and even captained the Gunners in a game against Portsmuth. He also had an excellent 2009-10 season, scoring 12 goals and providing several assists. But the ultimate moment of Arshavin’s career was when he scored the winning goal against Barcelona. That very goal will stay in the mind of all the Gunner’s forever.

However, Arshavin’s performance and consistency came crashing down in the matches which followed. He had a run of unsuccessful games and became really inconsistent. He had a really poor season with Arsenal last year, having hardly contributed to the Gunner’s progress in the first 6 months of the season. Arshavin’s most important contribution last season, was the assist for Thiery Henry against Sunderland, in February, which Arsenal won 2-1, and it played a significant role in the Gunners campaign to finish 3rd, later on in the season. Arshavin then was loaned to Zenit St Petersburg till the end of the season, the club which he played first and won various titles with.

Arshavin, then was named the captain of the Russian National team in the Euro 2012. Arshavin had a really good Euro, providing 3 assists in the first 2 games and led by an example. However, Russia lost their last match against Greece and were knocked out of the championships in the group stages. Some of the post tournament comments made by Arshavin to the Russian fans agitated them.

At 31, one cannot expect Andrei Arshavin to get back to his best in the upcoming years. His performances has been disappointing in the last few months for Arsenal and stats show it. However, he would be an asset for any team with his brilliant trickery, ability to score goals and also his experience at the highest level would benefit any team. So in my view, I would love to see Arshavin being given another chance at the Emirates to prove himself, and I hope he proves himself, if given a chance.