Arsenal FC: Andrei Arshavin Looks Rejuvenated After Swansea City Win

Samuel Butler once said that genius has a supreme capacity of getting its possessor into all kinds of trouble.

It's one of the most maddening characteristics—geniuses are often erratic, inconsistent and unpredictable.

And while that's fine for a film director, or novelist—creators who spend most of their time obscured from the public eye (hey there, Terrence Malick), and are only seriously judged when they submit a piece of work—we expect more from those we see on a more regular basis (I'll get to that in a moment).

We don't have to witness the terrible bouts of soul-searching and melancholy that have often plagued the most brilliant individuals in history. We hear about it, yes, but it's as if we were protected by a thin, comforting veil—Abraham Lincoln or Winston Churchill's terrible battles with depression, after all, weren't televised.

So what do we make of Arsenal winger (and Russian No. 10) Andrei Arshavin, the diminutive little play-maker with a howitzer cannon of a right boot?

I can say, without a shadow of hyperbole (well, maybe just a little) that the Russian has uncorked some of the most sublime finishes I've ever witnessed in football. He is a genius.

That four-goal outburst at Anfield. The firecracker of a 30-yard effort he unleashed at Old Trafford, which keeper Ben Foster could do no more than parry into the top of the net. The impeccable touch, then dizzyingly-fast effort (again) at Anfield—this coming, mind you, after a week in which he had nary a touch on the ball due to a knock on his favored right boot—when Arshavin fired an unstoppable screamer past a helpless Pepe Reina.

You might say he sees what others can't see. Because few would dare attempt the audacious bits of skill he's pulled off during his time with Arsenal.

Yet when debating the top players in the world at present, Arshavin's name would be an unlikely mention.

For the better part of two years, he has infuriated Arsenal supporters with his inexplicable lack of effort on the defensive end and his penchant for silly lapses in concentration that result in turnovers.

One needed only look at his 20-game goalless streak going into Saturday's Swansea City match to get an accurate read on his present form. What have you done for me lately would sum it up quite tidily.

A marked shift—almost as if a pall had fallen over his face—in Arshavin's performances had coincided with Russia being bounced from a 2010 World Cup playoff match up against Slovenia in November 2009.

Heavily favored going into the two-match set, the Russians had underperformed and less than two years after proving the revelation of Euro 2008, when they had embarked upon a swashbuckling run into the semifinals, they were going to miss out on the premier competition in world football.

Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger noted the psychological effect of that failure upon Arshavin, who at that time was looking like a veritable bargain-buy at £15 million.

Though the Russian would continue to produce—he went on to net 11 goals in all competitions for Arsenal in 2009-10, and bagged 10 in 2010-11, something seemed not quite right.

That preternatural ability to produce brilliance out of nothing seemed to have vanished like his nation's World Cup hopes. He looked listless out on the pitch.

And it's there that one begins to question whether genius is, in fact, possible in a footballer. Whereas the aforementioned artist can spend most of his time out of the public eye, a footballer is center stage each weekend. There's no room to hide when you're not at 100 percent.

The former golden boy was suddenly the topic of a proposed move from the club it seemed he'd made an indelible imprint upon just months previously. Even his former employer, Zenit St Petersburg, emerged as a possible destination for the unsettled playmaker, who was demoted from Arsenal's first XI during the latter stages of the 2010-11 season.

It's difficult to remain angry at a player who conjures up some of the funniest facial expressions you're likely to ever see in football, but Arshavin's schtick was growing thin—fast.

He looked helpless during the 8-2 dismantling at Old Trafford on Aug. 28, and was lucky not to be sent off for a set of rash offenses.

Yet just as Arsenal got a much-needed respite from a dreary start to their season via the international break at the start of this month, so too did Arshavin, who was able to return to his national side.

It was last Tuesday's home match against Ireland—which would prove to be a disappointing 0-0 draw—that seemed to change everything.

Arshavin was anything but moribund in that match. Reports described the little No. 10 (he plays in an attacking midfield role with Russia) as being a menace on the pitch, playing in teammates with perfectly-timed passes, and putting Irish keeper Shay Given under all sorts of pressure with his bombastic display.

It was, to put it gently, about ****ing time we'd seen that world-class side of Arshavin.

But then, perhaps it begged the question—if he was this creative in a central attacking role, maybe he was simply out of position at Arsenal, unable to display his his considerable realm of genius in such limited confines on the wing.

No matter. Arshavin has little chance of enjoying that central role with Arsenal, given the recent signing of Mikel Arteta.

Still, Arsenal's No. 23 found a way to reinvigorate himself during Saturday's match.

In the 15th minute, after turning brilliantly in the center of midfield, Arshavin rushed ahead on a darting run through the Swansea defense and played a sumptuous ball for an onrushing Theo Walcott, who saw his left-footed shot cleared from the goal line.

Just as Samir Nasri had found a way to do in seasons past, when the Frenchman would slyly move from his starting left wing position to a more central role, Arshavin found a way to drift into the center of play.

Though it might have affected Arsenal's width, the Russian brought an added element to the middle third, where his pace was more dangerous than Arteta's and his precision more dynamic than Aaron Ramsey.

And in the 40th minute, a stroke of magnificent luck allowed Arshavin to break his 20-match duck.

They say in basketball that if a great scorer is struggling to get the ball in the hoop, the last thing you want to do is foul and send him to the free throw line, where he has two chances to see the ball go through the basket and get some confidence back.

It's a tried-and-true method and one that Arshavin enjoyed on Saturday.

Thanks to an outrageous gaffe by Swans keeper Michel Vorm who, having collected the ball near the right edge of his penalty area, proceeded to roll a pass to a defender with his back to him, only to see it carom off the defender's heel and right into the path of the nearby Arshavin, who instinctively curled a left-footed shot home from a deceptively acute angle.

Say what you will about the Russian, but the fact remains that few players in the world could produce a finish of that caliber on their weaker foot.

But it was vintage Arshavin—something incredible from absolutely nothing. He's an unabashed predator when on form and that finish was pure savoir-faire.

It did more than put Arsenal up 1-0—a lead they would guard, though tenuously, until full time—it unleashed a long-lost side of the Russian.

At halftime, I almost did a double-take as I saw the Russian engaging teammates Emmanuel Frimpong and Bacary Sagna in what looked to be tactical analysis as they walked into the dressing room.

Though the Russian, at 30, is one of the senior members of the squad, you'd never have pegged him as a leader (though he does captain Russia). It was empowering to see that display of commitment to his teammates.

Just like that win proved for Arsenal, it appears Andrei Arshavin is enjoying a certain reawakening of sorts.

Whether it proves to be just another sporadic blip on his radar screen of brilliance remains to be seen. At the very least, if he can continue to conjure up moments of magic like Saturday, Arsene Wenger will feel confident reiterating what he once said about the little maestro.

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"Arshavin likes the big stage. He can be quiet for 20 minutes, and then suddenly turn up with something decisive. That is what you want from the big players—the big players make you win the big games."

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