Arshavin Defends Zenit Debut Performance

© RIA Novosti . Alexey Kudenko / Go to the mediabankAndrey Arshavin
Andrey Arshavin - Sputnik International
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Andrey Arshavin has defended his debut performance for Zenit St. Petersburg against CSKA Moscow, saying Tuesday that he played to the best of his ability.

Andrey Arshavin has defended his debut performance for Zenit St. Petersburg against CSKA Moscow, saying Tuesday that he played to the best of his ability.

Saturday’s match was Arshavin’s first competitive game since returning to Zenit on loan from Arsenal last month. He had little obvious impact on the game and was replaced on 55 minutes.

“Regarding my debut against CSKA, in that match I played as well as I could,” he said.

Arshavin is happy to return to his tome town of St. Petersburg and looking forward to playing Zenit’s Petrovsky stadium, where he started his career, he said.

“It’s nice to be in my home town and it will be very nice to play at the Petrovsky stadium, regardless of the fact that the pitch will be very poor.”

A lot had changed at Zenit since he joined Arsenal in 2009, he said, and he was trying to adapt to coach Luciano Spalletti’s methods after becoming used to former Zenit coach Dick Advocaat.

“Spalletti’s training is different to Advocaat’s. I don’t know yet if it’ll be harder for me at Zenit than at Arsenal or not, but anything’s possible.”

Arshavin added that he had not watched Arsenal’s Champions League clash with AC Milan on Tuesday, or Zenit’s defeat to Benfica, as he was flying to St. Petersburg from London at the time.

Arshavin has scored 30 goals in 133 games in his time at Arsenal. He won the 2008 UEFA Cup with Zenit and took Russia to third place at the 2008 European championships.

 

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