Arsenal: Andrei Arshavin Rejoins Russia's Zenit St. Petersburg on Loan

Andrei Arshavin has moved back to Russia in a loan move which sees him rejoin Zenit St Petersburg, the team where he began his career.

Zenit had been in talks with Arshavin over the past week, and a lot of rumours flying around about if he would go or not were confirmed by the Russian club on Friday night.

Arshavin hasn’t been seeing as much football as he would want in North London this year; he has made 27 appearances with nearly all of them coming off the bench.

There have been growing frustrations between him and the Arsenal fans. His lacklustre performances have been aggravating the Gooners, who would now much rather see Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain on the wing than the Russian captain.

Arsene Wenger commented on the situation yesterday, saying that he would not expect the winger to leave the club, but if a late bid came in, he wouldn’t stand in the way. So the Arsenal manager might be a bit shocked that the deal has been confirmed, with the Russian team making many statements about the loan deal on their website.

The statements on the Zenit St Petersburg website were “Arshavin's back” and "FC Zenit welcomes the return of Andrei Arshavin to St Petersburg."

The little Russian has scored 23 goals and made 98 league appearances for the Gunners and will be hoping to get back to scoring ways in his loan move to Russia.

It remains to be seen whether Arshavin will ever play for Arsenal again, with most Arsenal fans wanting the loan move to become a more permanent one come the end of the season.

If he starts to hit form with the Russian club, though, he may be able to take that back to the Premier League and have a fantastic season with Arsenal next year. But the thing that has to be on his mind is getting in top form and fitness for the upcoming Euro 2012, and playing regularly will help him get his sharpness back.