MOSCOW, July 1 (R-Sport) - Andrei Arshavin's first start for Russian football club Zenit St. Petersburg since his switch from Arsenal was a success, coach Luciano Spalletti said Monday.
The forward played 68 minutes of Sunday's 2-1 defeat to Dynamo Moscow in the Ukrainian capital, where he had a key role in the build-up to Viktor Faizulin's equalizer.
"I'm really happy with what I saw," Spalletti said of the 32-year-old. "It's clear he still needs to work on his condition," he added.
"There were moments when it looked like he was hopelessly tired, but in those moments he could come to life, speed the game up. It's clear that his mastery of the game has gone nowhere."
Arshavin signed a two-year deal with his boyhood club last month after spending the better part of two years on the fringes of Arsene Wenger's squad.
He has expressed an interest in regaining his place in the Russian national team, which he lost after an abysmal Euro 2012 campaign.
