Andrei Arshavin: Player of the Second Half of the Season 2008/9

Arsenal’s new little magician has been a revelation since signing in the closing minutes of the January transfer window. He’s played only 9 games yet has 6 assists and 6 goals – and against Liverpool became only the sixth player in Premier League history to score 4 in one game.

He has wonderful balance and dribbling ability, has a great strike with either foot, and is superbly creative in his movement and passing. The perfect Arsenal player. What’s more, Arsenal paid only £200k more for Arshavin than they received from Barcelona for Alex Hleb; and the Belarussian’s inabilty to impress the Catalans, lack of game time, and resultant lack of confidence and compusure when he does play (witness his awful finish under pressure in the closing stages of the CL QF) shows what a good deal that was. Hleb has been offered back to the Gunners by Barca – but when you have Arshavin, who needs him? He’s now issued a ‘come and get me’ plea to Bayern Munich.

It’s remarkable how well Arshavin has settled; many, indeed most, foreign imports take at least a few games and in some cases never do (Shevchenko, Alves to name but two). But Arshavin has adjusted to the pace brilliantly, looking right at home from the off – he nearly scored twice on his debut. Many have used the long Russian season as mitigation for Roman Pavyluchenko’s lack of impact; but Arshavin has played a similar length of time without a break, and seems to be suffering no ill effects.

When he lit up Euro 2008 we wondered if he was a flash in the Russian pan – but he has already proved, beyond doubt, that isn’t the case.

We’ve talked before about the outstanding arsenal of strikers the Gunners possess, and with Arshavin pulling the strings alongside Fabregas – with whom he has already formed a fantastic understanding and burgeoning partnership – Arsenal will be a force to be reckoned with next season. As long as they sign a decent Centre Back!

Arshavin has arguably achieved more in his 9 games than Ryan Giggs has all season – and had he been at the Emirates since the start of the season he would have pushed the veteran Welshman all the way. As we say here, Giggs’ award is a nod to sentimentality, longevity, and achievement – but also comes with the lack of an outstanding alternative candidate. Had Arshavin been here for the duration, he could well have been that player.

If Giggs is player of the season (more a nod to player of the decade) Andrei Arshavin is undoubtedly the player of the second half. He is arguably already indispensable to Arsenal – can they cope without him in their quest for the Champions League?