Was Andrey Arshavin ever as good as he pretended to be?

I found myself asking this question after watching yet another poor showing from the Russian I-don’t-know-what-to-call-him. When he arrived at Arsenal in 2009, I knew very little about him, never seen him play before but we were assured that he was a fantastic player and sure enough he seemed to be just that. The game where he, arguably, made his name was the Liverpool versus Arsenal game at Anfield where he scored all four of Arsenal’s goals in an enthralling four all draw.

Maybe that performance was above what he could produce on the day to day, but since he produced that performance early on in his Arsenal career, the underachieving club’s desperate fans placed the weight of their expectations on him. Quite frankly though, since that game, Arshavin has threatened to become something but hasn’t produced a performance of substance in my mind.

Says it all, doesn't it?

What disappoints me the most about Arshavin though is by far his seeming lack of character. Looking at his stature, one would reckon that he’d be the smallest man on the field of play every game and envisage THAT small, courageous, determined player who has to fight that much harder for every ball to compensate for his lack of physical presence much like Craig Bellamy. But that isn’t what Arshavin is about at all. He is average on most days, a lazy defender and doesn’t fight for the ball when he loses it and often doesn’t seem interested in being where he is.

Arshavin promised a lot but delivered nothing for Arsenal and their fans. I don’t see anything special about him. I’m not sure if he was ever as good as most of us thought. Simply, everyone got caught up in the moment of that Liverpool game.