If you are a member of the mighty Goonerverse \u2013 and if you\nare not but still reading this, I must congratulate you on your impeccable\ntaste \u2013 you are invited to choose your\nown single memory of Andrey Arshavin that best summarizes his time at the\nArsenal. Maybe the drop-off-the-shoulder sauntering and impossible angle finish\nfor his first Arsenal goal against Blackburn? The fulsome foursome against\nLiverpool at Anfield? The inch-perfect cross created out of virtually no space\non the left wing, with defenders breathing down his neck, in a muddy Sunderland\nground to set Henry up for his final goal for Arsenal? The leisurely\nperambulations in those days when the quicksilver touches would draw\nfrustrations from his teammates and he would cut a forlorn figure, who would\nthen become tragi-comic as his attempts at defensive tracking back would start disappearing\neven before they materialize, like a mid-winter ray of sunlight in a foggy St.\nPetersburg day? The impish smile and the finger-at-the-lips celebration after\nscoring goals? The torrent of boos raining down as the little Russian came on\nto substitute Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain who was terrorizing the AC Milan defense\nas we were trying to overturn a 4-0 away deficit by scoring three and pushing\nfor the fourth? The magnificent winner\nagainst Liverpool again at Anfield as we came back from 0-1 down to beat them\n1-2? <\/p>\n\n\n\n
My favorite is the winning goal against Barcelona in what I\nthink was our best ever performance at the Emirates (February 2011): 2-1\nagainst one of the best ever sides in history of club football with\nMessi-Xavi-Iniesta-Villa-Pedro-Busquets all at the peak of their abilities and\nthe team capable of playing what Ars\u00e8ne used to call \u201cvideo game football\u201d. Not\njust the goal itself which was a fine piece of counter-attacking football that\nArshavin finished with a perfectly placed curler on the bottom corner that\nwrong-footed Victor Valdez \u2013 for the second time that evening as you may\nrecall, with Robin scoring a near-post nearly impossible equalizer earlier \u2013\nbut also the celebratory run after the goal. Arshavin with his jersey covering\nhis face, revealing an undershirt that had the image of himself celebrating a\ngoal in his less atypical fashion, finger to his lips. It was a piece of weird\nand funny performance art \u2013 like a sip of a chilled drink immediately after a\nslice of such delicious football \u2013 that made a sly, ironic nod to his poor\nperformances for a few weeks coming into the match. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
That inconsistency, especially in the last two years — part\nof which was spent going back on loan to Zenit before making the return final a\nyear later — of his Arsenal career, have most likely colored our collective\nmemory of Arshavin with more than a tinge of apathy or even frustration. But\njoining Arsenal from his boyhood club Zenit Saint Petersburg on the winter\ntransfer deadline day, he had started his time in north London with both verve\nand output, helping us to secure a Champions League spot at the end of\n2008-2009 season the likelihood of which had looked to be in trouble especially\nwith Cesc was sidelined for nearly half of the season after we had already\nstarted it without super Tom\u00e1\u0161 Rosick\u00fd out for the entire season. That Anfield\nhattrick+ was the highlight, but the overall quality of his performance was\nenough to earn him the second spot in Arsenal\u2019s Player of the Season award,\njust behind Robin. Given that he only played a little less than half of the\nseason that was a memorable achievement. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Despite quite a few more sparkling performances for us\nespecially in 2009-2010 and 2010-2011 seasons he never really recaptured the\nconsistency and creativity of those first few months. Some had observed that\nRussia\u2019s failure to qualify for the 2010 World Cup may have had weighed heavily\non him. It didn\u2019t help his cause that the team went through a significant transition\nas the band of effervescent young Turks who had originally welcomed him\ndispersed for one reason or another \u2013 greener pastures, injuries, indiscipline\n\u2013 and the fanbase started losing patience with the players much more easily as\na way of expressing their loss of trust in the club. After those fallow years the\narrival of creative talents like Santi Cazorla and Mesut \u00d6zil, coupled with the\nold favorite Rosick\u00fd\u2019s reemerging influence at the autumn of his career, and\nthree successful cup runs meant that Andrey Arshavin\u2019s little sojourn in the\nsunshine and warmth (You don\u2019t believe me? Just ask him\u2026) of London unhappily\ncoincided with some of our least memorable years in recent history. 31 goals and 41 assists in altogether 143\nappearances for Arsenal is a return many players would have been proud of — a\ngoal or assist in every other match \u2013 but the feeling remains that the promise\nof his potential never was quite fulfilled. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
His kerfuffle with Russian fans after the 2010 World Cup\nqualifying failure and again after the group stage exit at 2012 Euro (where he\nhimself had played well enough to be named the best midfielder of the\ntournament by UEFA) hints at probably not feeling at ease with his career at\nthat time. Before coming to Arsenal he had enjoyed a decent amount of success\nwith Zenit, winning the Russian league and then UEFA Cup. He had never played\nfor any team other than Zenit \u2013 let alone anywhere outside Russia \u2013 when he\njoined Arsenal at a mature age of 27. Maybe he never felt fully settled or\nconnected with the club. And his involvement with us ended disappointingly \u2013\nespecially for a player of his abilities \u2013 with only 11 appearances in all of\n2012-13 before he left permanently for back home, rejoining Zenit. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
On the other hand, while in London he earned a certain\namount of media following not only because of his footballing abilities, but also\nbecause of his amusing, sometimes absurd, public musings on diverse topics that\nare related to football only by the virtue of him being a footballer. So by\nthat appearance the inconsistency with his footballing career may haven\u2019t had\nbothered him that much. It may be wisdom, it may be lack of seriousness, those\nmay be one and the same, or not\u2026 As often is the case with talents like his\nthat are more mercurial in nature, maybe this sense of mild disappointment is\njust a reflection of our own unreasonable expectations. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
16 February 2011, Arshavin \u2013 who was no longer a regular starter with Jack, Cesc, Nasri, Theo and Robin all were fit to start and his own form being inconsistent over the last few months \u2013 came off the bench at 68 minutes to replace Song as Arsenal, still 1-0 down from David Villa\u2019s first-half goal, after withstanding a few Messi moments but staying resilient and starting to impress themselves on the game thanks largely to a virtuosic performance by a 19 year old Wilshere, went looking for at least an equalizer. Arshavin moved to the left, and had a hand in Robin\u2019s goal as from his pass Clichy lofted the ball into the box looking to find Robin who finished from that impossible angle. Then at the 83rd<\/sup> minute a classic Arsenal counter-attack sprang from the edge of the box:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Bendtner (who just replaced Theo a little earlier) to Jack to Cesc to Nasri. Robin makes a run into the box and all eyes are on him. Nasri hesitates cleverly waiting for more movements, Arshavin makes an unmarked late run into the edge of the box with his hands raised to draw attention to himself, Barca defenders and Valdez instinctively fearing another bit of magic from Robin concentrated more on him, exploiting that uncertainty Nasri makes a perfect pass, Valdez is still covering his right side, onrushing Arshavin places a perfect right foot curling finish to the bottom left corner of Victor Valdez\u2019s goal. With Bendtner joining in Arshavin\u2019s celebratory run, Arshavin lifts his jersey covering his face, with his undershirt showing an image of him celebrating goal as he typically does\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n A great game of football culminating in an excellent goal of\nthe kind that typified Ars\u00e8ne\u2019s footballing philosophy, the joy and release of\nwinning a match of that magnitude mixed with the laughs at a clever bit of\nsilliness, all the talented young footballers we had been waiting to become the\nworld-beaters we all felt that they could be were fit and playing together (not\nto forget super Tom Rosick\u00fd coming back from injury as well and on the bench) and\nit felt that Arshavin too after this goal would find his mojo back and we were\non the verge of achieving something memorable. Something more memorable than\nthat result itself\u2026something less transient, more graspable, more tangible\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n But football is transient. Nothing but transient. It gets so\nmuch under our skin because it reflects life in that paradox of achieving the\ngreatness only momentarily while striving for some kind of permanent glory\nwhich is but an expression of our hunger for immortality. <\/p>\n\n\n\n I am quite certain Andrey Arshavin, looking back at his\nfootballing career and the jumble of memories that it must have produced, will\nalways find the pure magic and drama of that February evening something to\nsmile back on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n At least, I hope so\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" If you are a member of the mighty Goonerverse \u2013 and if you are not but still reading this, I must congratulate you on your impeccable taste \u2013 you are invited to choose your own single memory of Andrey Arshavin that best summarizes his time at the Arsenal. Maybe the drop-off-the-shoulder sauntering and impossible angle […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[12,3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/891"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=891"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/891\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":895,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/891\/revisions\/895"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=891"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=891"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=891"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}