One of the stars of both Euro 2008 and Zenit's UEFA Cup win - now all he has to do is live upto the hype in his time at Arsenal...
There is a ridiculous notion about that Arshavin has only ever played two good games in his career. Yes, he struggled to escape the attentions of Marcos Senna in the Euro 2008 semi-final, but against Sweden and Holland he dominated the midfield in a way that no player has on the international stage since Michel Platini.
Arsene Wenger has expressed doubt as to whether he could cope in the Premier League, and given Arshavin’s slightness of build, those concerns are legitimate, but his talent is not in question.
Just because something wasn’t shown on Sky doesn’t mean it didn’t happen: the argument that Arshavin is 27, and that therefore if he were any good he would already have left, says more about western European insularity than it does about his ability.
He was a late developer, and there have been issues about his temperament, but Arshavin was Russian Player of the Year in 2006 and then proved the central creative intelligence as Zenit won their first Russian title last year, following it up with the UEFA Cup in 2008.
His goal against Macedonia in a Euro 2008 qualifier last September, accelerating in from the left and finishing with a vicious shot from a narrow angle was exquisite and, as if to prove it wasn’t a fluke, he then scored a mirror image for Zenit against Bayer Leverkusen in the UEFA Cup quarter-final.
Having been priced out of a move by Zenit in the summer of 2008, with Barcelona and Spurs amongst the clubs being knocked back, Arshavin was forced to sit tight in Russia for another five months before Arsene Wenger came calling in the dying seconds of the January 2009 transfer window.