Should Arsenal give Arshavin a chance before selling him in January?
Andrey Arshavin was the record transfer for Arsenal until Arsene Wenger signed Santi Cazorla from Malaga this summer. He is also thought to be one of the highest paid players at the club. Despite some flashes of the brilliance we all know he is capable of, it is safe to say that his time at Arsenal has been considerably less successful than hoped. Arsenal fans may be glad to hear, then, that his former club, Zenit St. Petersburg, have decided they want him back and will try to buy him back in January.
Many will think that the decision will be easy for Arsene Wenger, but it might not be as simple as that. For one thing, Arshavin may not accept a move back to Russia, as he is said to be very settled in London and is keen for his children to be educated here. Wenger would realistically expect to get no more than £3 million for the player, and probably not even that.
Wenger has already admitted that Arshavin’s best position is as a central attacking midfielder, whereas he has been played mostly on the left flank for the Gunners. He has shown this season that he can still offer some real quality to Arsenal. He helped to force extra time against Reading, and that may turn out to allow Arsenal to end the trophy drought. He could be used as a replacement for Cazorla, who is playing the whole of every game at the minute and could do with a rest.
So maybe it would be worth giving Arshavin a bit of game time, to keep him sharp and to provide some relief for Cazorla. If Arsenal can get a decent lead by half time today, maybe Arshavin could replace Cazorla for the second half. It might also help to increase the value of the Russian to any potential buyer. Can he still be useful to Arsenal, Gooners?
Arshavin’s crosses are priceless.
Top Gooner!. Agree or not?:
49 
1
Already turn off the tv.. Can’t take it anymore..
Top Gooner!. Agree or not?:
15 
3
Pathetic
Top Gooner!. Agree or not?:
12 
3
So who’s our striker? Ramsey?
Opinions divided. What do you think?
5 
11
Buy a F*ckin worldclass striker to play with giroud, pathetic options from the bench more points dropped!
Opinions divided. What do you think?
10 
4
Great cross by Arshavin!!
Top Gooner!. Agree or not?:
24 
2
Really coquelin now. wenger you are a fuck*ng joke
Opinions divided. What do you think?
11 
3
Serioisly arsene must be the worst at substitutions
Top Gooner!. Agree or not?:
19 
8
Wenger are you playing for a draw or a win?Remove Podolski and giroud when you could have take off ramsey and put coquelin
Opinions divided. What do you think?
13 
6
My word, a striker off and d.m on, seen it all now. Shite
Top Gooner!. Agree or not?:
16 
6
it should b Ramsey for COQ
Arshavin For POldi
Gerv dot deserve any place!
Top Gooner!. Agree or not?:
23 
7
Come on boys!!!
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8 
1
Really coquelin now. wenger you are a fuck*ng joke
play ramsey we drop points
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5 
4
Good job wenger…
Opinions divided. What do you think?
3 
9
to these who are saying ramsey is playing shit, ok if ramsey is playing shit and arteta is not even in the field, ramsey is the one who is creating chances and defending , while arteta is not doing shit.
other thing is that gervinho is not good enogh to play in the wings, he can’t cross the ball or shot. he also miss the ball alot.
by the way the best player in midfield is ramsey as carzola,and arteta are not playing well.
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15 
13
Whats happening inside wengers head..coq coming for giroud..ramsey still on song..are we 2 ,3 goals up..
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6 
5
Arshavin On Left Can Cross… What Gerv can do??? Took the ball of the goal line!
WTF subs by Wenger…
n Thts Y i Says SAGNA, Cox he can deliver…
N look Arshavin On Left to cross n Wenger took Off GIROUD!
WTF man!
Top Gooner!. Agree or not?:
15 
5
one shot at goal. LOL
Opinions divided. What do you think?
9 
4
Frustrationsssssssssssssssssssssssssss!!!!!
Wenger Terrible SUBS again!
Opinions divided. What do you think?
9 
3
Is this the same team that got beat for 5 by man city?
Top Gooner!. Agree or not?:
12 
2
Wow.. Are we becoming reliant on Walcott? Losing him may well be the final nail in the coffin.
Top Gooner!. Agree or not?:
26 
1
Those who think wenger do it right…r mad really it was a must win
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8 
2
U bring on a for a st u get a draw
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3 
2
Utter Shite!
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9 
1
Giroud should Man Of match For Arsenal Side!
Top Gooner!. Agree or not?:
14 
4
Wenger INSULTS ARSHAVIN when He BRings D*ck Head GERV!
WEnger INSULT COQUILEN by Playng RAMSEEY!
Opinions divided. What do you think?
14 
6
Ramsay loosing ball easily some of us were not watching the same game…
Opinions divided. What do you think?
12 
4
Absolutley brilliant thinking, wilshire and sagna dropped that’s wat u do wen u want to win drop ur best players. Giroud played well them crap bags full backs and wingers didn’t give him anything. Plain and simple it just needed wilshire and sagna to come on and game would have been won. Credit to villa deserving of a win should be dissapointed with a draw, BENTEKE is class.
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6 
3
just wasted my time.. should have studied for the exam!
Top Gooner!. Agree or not?:
26 
1
Awefull!!! I blame Wenger. Does he do any coaching and motivating!! Our players just play with zero urgency. Only in the last few minutes they tried to push. I just don’t understand what Wenger does in training all week.
Does anybody have any explanation??
Ox almost looks uninterested to me. How is that possible?!
Top Gooner!. Agree or not?:
19 
4
Wenger need some balls. why ramsey and gervinho on the pith.
Well done arsene you do it again. show us that you dont have a clue of how make a sustitution. IN THE. FANS AND ARSENAL I TRUST
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9 
5
too many changes in the starting 11 , not good at the same time.
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1 
2
whoever said ramsey played well is not a arsenal fan. ramsey had soo many chances to put us ahead easy chances too i might add if we stuck on coq at least arteta could move upto his natural position
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5 
4
should have done some work at office.. utter waste of time.. we r full of shit
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5 
2
people are acting suprised-haven’t you been watching our past 6 games!!!
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9 
2
i can see SPUDS Fans Here…… :/
WHO LIKE RAMSEY STARTING???
WHO WANT GERV HEAD OF ARSHAVIN??
Y We R getting Thumb down on comments For poor SUBS???
SOme thng Wrong GUYS!
Opinions divided. What do you think?
12 
8
To all the fickle fans who thought winning against 10 men was such a mighty championship performance, ur laffable. The performance today this is Arsenal all hype no bottle no passion, Arteta and Ramsey two of the slowest players in the history of the premier league no penetration or anything side passers that’s wat they are. Rubbish.
Opinions divided. What do you think?
7 
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What does Gervinho offer this team?
. The substitutions didn’t make sense. Cazorla and Arteta were having stinkers. I thought Wilshere and Arshavin should have been brought earlier on. There was absolutely no penetration in the side today. That’s all I will say for now. ;-(
Top Gooner!. Agree or not?:
20 
0
We are one of the worst coached teams in the premier league. With this squad, would any other manager do any worse than Wenger is doing right now?? I might be over reacting but seriously.
It’s not just today, seems like half of our squad is not interested!!
Top Gooner!. Agree or not?:
15 
3
santi n mikel seemed tired
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8 
3
I didn’t even read the article, you cannot justify 90k a week on someone so inconsistent, if arshavin wanted to play he’d be kicking off saying he’s out of position ect, instead all he’s doing is collecting a wage packet which could be given to someone a lot more willing and effective!! – aka Walcott for a start
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5 
4
Up Arsenaal
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3 
2
wenger is a total cun— he should just f— off
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2 
4
he can play wide..feeding bol to Giroud….bt i prefer playing hin in da middle..as CAM substituting exhausting Cazorla…Cazorla is not a machine and Wenger cant use him in every game!!!!Arshavin shud be given his chance to play in da middle….pity Cazorla
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8 
0
No!! He has had enough chances playing for Arsenal. Time for him to move on!
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3 
3
we should stop buying arsenal tickets, shirts, anything that making profits to wenger & arsenal.. we have wasted our money only for their pockets.. boycoting arsenal will show to them how our feeling are..
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3 
2
Wenger will keep playing that monkey Ramsey …. AW’s toy boys always get ahead in the team. Obviously Wenger was not at all concerned about winning this fixture. Why else would Wilshere and Sagna have been benched? How AW can possibly pick that wanker Ramsey over Arshavin beats me! If AW had any sense, he would give Arshavin as much game time as possible and get the best out of him in the 1 or 2 seasons that this lad has left in him. Selling a player of his quality for 3 million or less makes no sense. You cannot find a replacement for him for the same amount of money. As for AW’s subs in this game – well AW has never been much of a tactician – so why are we surprised??
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@GUNNERS89
Yeah mate I highly agree. Ramsey had 3 open chances and stuffed it all up because he is Aaron Ramsey. I, too, find it strange how people can actually say he had a good game when so many times he just dribbles into defensive cul de sacs. The boy is so predicatable and hopeless. How many games have we lost or drawn with Ramsey starting? If anyone has the figures please share! This madness has to stop. Do you think Fergie would start Ramsey at all? Hell NO!
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2 
2
there is no way arshavin should play he isn’t good enough on the ball to play santi’s role. He is pretty useless if truth be told even if he went to Wigan I doubt he would get much game time because he doesn;t work very hard and has lost a lot of attacking ability. Arshavin, djhorrou, squillaci, chamakh, santos, fabianski and ramsey…the under belly of our squad is extremely weak and would struggle to hold down a consistent place in bottom of the table qpr’s side.
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0 
1
I understand the frustrations of the Arsenal fans. This trophy drought is not normal. Chelsea coach was sacked for three poor games and Wenger is still around for seven years of poor show. Seriously the Board of Arsenal should have their heads examined.
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2 
0
I’ve noticed like many have, that Arsenal are lacking the urgency to push the ball forward. Rosicky and Arshavin are players that love to get forward and attack. I think our squad needs a little shifting around to rediscover that spark we so desperately need.
I also believe that we have 2 VERY safe passers in Arteta and Merts. Sometimes TOO SAFE. You never see Barca and Real Madrid play like that. Why do we have to constantly pass it back to the keeper or sideways when you could fit a bus between our player and the defender? This also allows the defence to push forward and we have to reset the play again? Merts is reliable but he is only so because he is way too safe. I want to see our defenders and DM make more forward passes. Be more urgent with playing in the opponent’s half rather than ours. We had so much possession in the Villa game and did nothing with it. Also, it doesn’t help when our defenders are passing to guys like Ramsey who can’t hold the ball or pass forward to save their withering pride of donning an Arsenal jersey. Ramsey’s game is pathetic. It’s poor and painful to watch. He actually frustrates me more than Bendtner, and we all know how unreliable the Dane can be in front of goal.
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@Nathan
Exactly! Ramsey is a liability in terms of keeping possession and moving forward. He is the hump in our attacking path. Ramsey fans need to stop wishing and start watching!
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2 
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Arshavin is way better than dick head gervinho eamsey and wenger
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2 
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Yeah you rotate players in their quality spots like arshavin and cazorla for CAM you get better form when they do play Walcott on RW podolski on LW( although that’s not what he signed up for) feeding beautiful balls on to the deadly heading of giroud and watch the goals pile up. Arteta can feed the most accurate long balls as long as that’s the plan to do so. Have the guys make the runs. We need deeper rotation. Arshavin and Cazorla are also great long shot takers so any missed attempts or blocked shots pop out to them waiting to blast right back in. Done deal!!
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0 
0
Sell him and buy Pablo Hermandez very smart ittelligant baitt spanish maestro. He’s to good for swansea.
Jetro Willems, Pablo Hernamdez, Ettiene Capoue and Huntelaar or Jovetic.
—————-Szczeny—————-
Sagna——-TV5——–Per——Willems
——–Arteta/Capoue–Whilshere——-
P.Hernamdez—–Cazorla——–Podolski
————Huntelaar/Giroud———–
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1 
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I saw alot of nasty comments regarding Ramsey but he is our best defensive midfielder he shouldn’t be playing as a winger ..
Ger has his ups and downs not always good to be an arsenal player..
In the last 2 games giroud kept retrieving to take the ball and he easily lose the ball and can’t even dribble .. He should stay up front for finishing..
We should go for Suarez he would be great with cazorla.
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2 
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Look at ManU subs against QPR, it changed the game bciz they get minimum 20 minutes or so..AW just gives 10 minutes. In 10 minutes arshavin provided around 3/4 passes in the later half.I think AW is hell bent on creating good/avg players of OX,AR.CQ etc so that he can sell them in a few yrs. all he is interested is top 4…we are missing song big time…arteta is not the same as song..cannot have arteta/ramsey together..its like playing with 2 Obi Mikel..
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0 
0
If we cant take risk against lower half of the table to get 3 pts, whats the point. Will struggle to reach top 4 this yr..hope thomas comes back like last yr and bails out AW again..
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0 
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Wenger should give several chances for arshavin as the Russian magician is a phenomenal footballer that can score terrific goals and assist people.
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