Hail Andrey Arshavin: Little Russian Key to Gunners Success This Season

(Photo by Shaun Botterill/Getty Images)

If Arsenal's form before the arrival of the diminutive Russian striker Andrey Arshavin had mirrored that following that chilly February day when the new Gunners talisman arrived, then the shareholders who so disgracefully berated Monsieur "Le Professeur" Wenger in May may have been saluting his genius.

As it is, every myopic hack is writing the Wenger boys off before a ball is kicked this season, without any reasoned analysis of what went wrong for the Arsenal last year and just how it might be put right in the new campaign.

The facts:

Before February 2nd

Played   24   won 12    drew 7     lost 5   points per game 1.79

After  February 2nd (with Arshavin)

Played   12   won 8      drew 4     lost 0  points per game  2.33

After February 2nd (without Arshavin)

Played   2    won 0       drew 1     lost 1  points per game  0.5

Can anyone seriously underestimate the value Arshavin to the Gunners' title challenge this season? If the 2.33 points per game played were transposed over the whole season Arsenal would have ended up with 88 points, only two behind the final total of Manchester United.

Can anyone argue that the defeats to Fulham, Hull and Stoke, would have occurred with the extra creativity and clinical finishing he would have added? As it was Arsenal outnumbered Fulham by 14 shots to five, Hull by 17 shots to eight, and even at the cauldron of the Britannia Stadium they had 13 shots to the seven managed by Tony Pulis's feisty outfit. 

Three wins instead of the three unlucky reverses suffered in these games alone would have boosted the points total to 81. The other two defeats (to Aston Villa and Manchester City) may also have been avoided because confidence and internal fractiousness wouldn't have been a feature.

A winning team can gloss over internal rifts (viz-a-viz Cole and Sheringham at the treble winning Man Utd). A struggling team with internal divisions (Toure v Gallas,  Adebayor v Bendner) generally implode.

Further optimism for Gooners can be derived from the offloading of two of the flies in the ointment to Man City at huge profit, and the return to fitness of Rosicky and Eduardo (the latter scoring at World Cup level for Croatia earlier this week). Suffice to say that Le Professeur isn't worried by the damnation of the predictors.

If anything, it takes expectation away and engenders a "we'll show them attitude" so essential to the "esprit de corps" of a championship winning team. This new united Arsenal, coupled with the genius of a Russian hitman, could well see glory in the red part of North London come next May. 

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