But we have signed a "superstar". A player would epitomises the Arsenal way. A player who's won titles and cups before. A player who can give us something that we're currently missing.
Arsene had a few words to say about the Russian:
“We are delighted to have signed Andrey Arshavin, he is a player I have admired for a long time. He is a versatile player with great experience, who will add real quality to our squad. Andrey is an exciting impact player with a huge amount of ability and has been an influential force with both Zenit St Petersburg and the Russian national team in recent seasons.”
He has been very loyal to Zenit – I understand he was there for about 8 years. That’s pretty loyal. He’s also starred in Spain’s Euro 2008 run and Zenit’s Champions League adventure – both of which caught the eye of Arsene.
Arsene has been following the Russian since October 2007, and had seen him flourish in the Champions League. Arsene first tried to sign him before the Euro 2008 championships and negotiations with Zenit were first initiated during the summer transfer window.
At that point the quote for the player was 20 million euros, and it’s an extra ordinary piece of business that we have managed to sign him for as little at £12m (before additional extras). Andrei spoke on his feelings towards Arsenal.
“I moved because I like the Arsenal style, Wenger as a coach and I like some of their players. I followed each game and from the moment when I met Arsene Wenger. He told me every time I talked to him, he said: “I want you to come to Arsenal”. He had confidence in me.”
A nice bit of illegal approaching, but is it fair? We don’t really know the context, so hard to say of course.
Apparently, Martin O’Neill has been talking about the unfair advantage that the FA have ordained to Arsenal. Is that because we’re his challenge for the 4th spot? Of course it is. I would be a little concerned if another club had signed someone else 24 hours after the window - but the FA have confirmed that we got everything in order in time.
So, the question is where will he play… we’ll he’s perfect for the European 4-5-1 that we play – but unfortunately he’s unavailable this season due to his participation in the Champions League group stages.
So, let’s have a look at a few teams:
Almunia
Sagna – Toure – Djourou – Clichy
Walcott – Denilson – Cesc – Nasri
Arshavin – Van Persie
Almunia
Sagna – Toure – Djourou – Clichy
Denilson
Walcott – Cesc – Nasri – Arshavin
Van Persie
Almunia
Sagna – Toure – Djourou – Clichy
Walcott – Nasri – Cesc – Arshavin
Edurdo – Van Persie
All of a sudden, we have a new found strength in depth – but one thing we have to remember is that a lot of those players are injured at the moment. Arshavin probably won’t feature in the game on Sunday, but from after that, until the injured players come back, this is probably our strongest line up:
Almunia
Sagna – Toure – Djourou – Clichy
Nasri – Denilson – Song – Arshavin
Adebayor – Van Persie
That team could line up against Cardiff in the reply of the FA Cup, but with Diaby and Cesc injured, somehow we’ve found ourselves with Song back into the team. He’s not a “bad player” but when he is in the team it does show our lack of numbers in that position…
Okay, time to make food… speak later…]]>
