To Keep or Not To Keep Part 3: Andrei Arshavin

So a few days have passed since the last installment of To Keep or Not To Keep of Aaron Ramsey. The article was very popular and as expected, divided opinion among fans.

Today we will look at someone who is undoubtedly one of the best footballers at the club, capable of absolute brilliance which he has demonstrated on many occasions in the past. He was/is our record signing (depending on what the actual Cazorla fee was), scored four at Anfield and has successfully endorsed one of those money/insurance search engine type websites. I am of course talking about Andrei Arshavin.

Despite the above accolades he has fallen down the pecking order and was eventually loaned out toward the end of the season back to his old club Zenit St Petersburg. Many non-Arsenal fans ask why? Why the demise of such a great talent?

In one word: application. It has been a long time since it looked as though Arshavin cared about playing. Although his ability was evident at times, far too often would he lose the ball and not demonstrate any effort or the inclination to retain possession.

It became a running joke amongst Arsenal fans and instead of making us laugh, the joke infuriated many if not all fans. This culminated in the infamous scenes at The Emirates Stadium when Oxlade Chamberlain was substituted in place of Andrei Arshavin. What was so striking about this incident though was not only the chorus of boos that filled the stadium, (my brother was actually caught on camera looking quite bewildered at what was going on as the cameras tried to capture the reaction) but the reaction from the players. Most visibly was the reaction of the (former) captain Robin Van Persie who was clearly distressed by the response. It certainly didn’t help that many perceived Arshavin to be at fault for United’s winner which went in shortly following his arrival.

That to me really marked the end of Arshavin’s career as an Arsenal player. Despite the immediate impact he made in his debut season in terms of goals contributed, and some successful seasons that followed, he will surely be remembered for his last season which was nowhere near as successful as his first three.

	Apps	Goals	Assists	Goals Contributed	G.C. per Game
2008–09	15	6	9	15	1
2009–10	39	12	7	19	0.49
2010–11	52	10	17	27	0.52
2011–12	26	2	4	6	0.23
Total	133	30	35	65	0.49

As you can see, his debut season was a revelation. 6 goals and 9 assists in just 15 games is pretty phenomenal for someone just joining a new league especially the Premier League.

Though there was a decline in the following year 2009-10, a return of a goal/assist every other game is certainly respectable, something he maintained the following year in 2010-11. What is particularly impressive is the 17 assists in the season.

It is clear to see the decline not only by watching his performances but by seeing the return of goals/assists per game which in his final season stood at around goal contribution per 5 games which is certainly not good enough for a club transfer record.

In addition if we break this down further into goals/assists per 30 minutes in the Premier League we can see that there was a clear decline toward the end of his Arsenal career.

	Minutes	Goals	Assists	GC per 30 minutes
2008–09	998	6	5	0.33
2009–10	2265	10	2	0.16*
2010–11	2194	6	11	0.23
2011–12	722	1	3	0.17
Total	6179	23	21	0.21

*It should be noted that this looks comparable to the 2011-12 season but in the Champions League assisted 5 times and scored a further goal so was not as bad as it looks.

I was initially looking at Goals/Assists per minute but the numbers were so small (0.01 for all seasons) that they didn't really give much information. I therefore used stats from EPLindex.com and used the information to look at Goals/Assists per 30 minutes.

As you can see from the table, there is a marked decrease in proficiency last season when compared to 2008-09 and 2010-11. Although last seasons stats are comparable to his second season with us in terms of league football, as mentioned above he contributed a lot in European football so a comparison is somewhat distorted.

It is clear then that whilst there is certainly talent there, without the application, performance suffers. As such with his lack of effort, goal contribution and visibly poor performances this past year (for Arsenal, he was actually quite good when he returned to Zenit) he is not a player we can really rely on anymore.

It is with that in mind that I think that unfortunately Andrei Arshavin is certainly not a keeper.

That’s just me though, let me know your thought below. Got a feeling this is going to be less controversial.

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Hope you enjoy your day and I will be back tomorrow with a preview of our upcoming friendly with FC Köln. 

GoonerVerse.