Arshavin has admitted he isn’t playing well at the moment.
And despite the surprisingly tight title race, the Russian wizard reckons the Arsenal team is still not mature enough.
Is he saying (1) the manager’s got it wrong and (2) I don’t think half of my team-mates are good enough?
Is that how you interpert this week’s comments from Arshavin?
He said : “I am still of the opinion that to win trophies Arsenal needs more players.
“There is the simple fact that last summer we sold two players and bought only one. So there is an obvious deficit of at least one. Then we lost Van Persie, Gibbs and Ramsey for a long time. So for me it is natural we need new players.
“Without the variety of players we have less diversity in attack. That allows our opponents to read our combinations more easily. Finally, it results in less ball possession for us and our defence comes under more pressure.
“The Premier League is very interesting, at least as long as we continue fighting to win it. But without new experienced players, real stars, it will be difficult to achieve success. Ideally, we need three or four such experienced players and then among our youths there should be guys who are not only good at playing football but have real character.”
Being a guy who tells it like it is, Arshavin makes no excuses for his own recent efforts. He admits he hasn’t had the impact of Torres, Drogba or Fabregas.
He said, “I do not have a sense of stability in my game. I feel I can match them and sometimes when I catch some inspiration, I show performances that are on the same level or close to them. But I am still not as consistent as them.”
Is there a subtext to those words?
Is he saying : I need to have people playing with me and for me a bit more? After all, it’s a team game.
In this situation in late March, most players would say : It will be tight, it could go to the last day, but Arsenal can win it if we have a bit of luck.
Why has Arshavin said this now? Is it a coded transfer request?
Or is it just Arshavin being Arshavin?