That said, a move away from Arsenal was certainly the best thing for Andrey Arshavin. He has fallen behind Theo Walcott, Gervinho, Oxlade-Chamberlain and often Yossi Benayoun. He was only getting cameo appearances off the bench and was never going to regain his form by playing a bit part role. He has been out of sorts for a while now and to be honest, it would have made more sense if he moved

“So what about Andrey Arshavin and the link to Zenit? Great idea I say. Let us lose a squad member and gain absolutely nothing in return. Very helpful. I hope that is the end of that one unless they decide to give us Andrey Scoreloadsagoalich in return…”

That is what I wrote on Thursday and like I keep telling you, don’t listen to a word I say. Mr ‘I am Gooner’ is heading back to Zenit St Petersburg on loan until the end of the season where I suspect he will make a permanent switch, if not to Zenit then to someone who can afford him and obviously a club where he wants to continue his career.

Firstly from our point, our as in the club, I cannot see how this is a good move. We are losing an experienced member of the squad who’s last contribution to the first team was to set up the winning goal at Sunderland in the league. The last time we saw him was in the reserves against Norwich where he scored twice and won a penalty. So as we cannot bring in anyone else right now, it would have been logical to have kept him on board until the summer.

That said, a move away from Arsenal was certainly the best thing for Andrey Arshavin. He has fallen behind Theo Walcott, Gervinho, Oxlade-Chamberlain and often Yossi Benayoun. He was only getting cameo appearances off the bench and was never going to regain his form by playing a bit part role. He has been out of sorts for a while now and to be honest, it would have made more sense if he moved on last summer if a replacement could have been found.

An incredibly talented player who could create chances or score long range goals out of the blue but a player who had lost his way at Arsenal, a player that had become almost an outcast on the pitch. He isn’t getting any younger and if he is to regain some form before the Euros then a move away makes a lot of sense.

I do feel a sense of sadness about his departure, he is unlikely to pull on the Arsenal shirt again unless things turn out badly for him in Russia. A player that burst onto the scene in the Premier League and impressed from day one. He has had some wonderful moments like skipping past a Blackburn Rovers defender on the byline and then lofting it over Paul Robinson at the near post, his four goals at Anfield in which he scored from every shot. His thunderbolt at Old Trafford and Anfield another year and of course Arrrssshhhaaavvvinnn!!!! against Barcelona at the Emirates. Really there should have been many, many more memories and he should currently be at his peak but instead his career had gone into reverse after those wonderful first six months. Unfortunately he had plenty of misplaced passes, struggles to influence the game and not the consistent fitness levels needed to play as an Arsenal attacker in our system.

The funny thing (or not so) is that Arshavin was showing signs of regaining a little bit of form. That change of body shape and cross at Sunderland and then two reserve goals, it is not inconceivable that he would have taken confidence from those moments but if he is to regain form then it will be for his former club.

While I would have liked to have seen Arshavin given the chance to have played more centrally behind Robin van Persie, a chance to concentrate solely on creating chances, perhaps with Mikel Arteta and Alex Song have less licence to go forward but I don’t buy into the theory that Arsene has ruined Arshavin for not playing him in that role, a wide role that he had often taken up playing for Russia and indeed Zenit.

Players at this level should be flexible enough to adapt in a system that is far from offensively rigid. It just hasn’t worked out the way it looked like it would and I cannot blame him for leaving.

Fans have been booing Andrey as his name has been read out pre match yet it would not surprise me one bit if many of those same people are now moaning that we are losing him.

The future of the club looks like it includes up and coming players like Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and perhaps even Ryo Miyaichi who has already made a positive impression at Bolton. It will be interesting to see if we go for another attacking wide player in the summer which brings me onto something else.

Bacary Sagna has been urging Eden Hazard not to join the old enemy and has been pointing Hazard in the direction of Arsenal. I am sure players have more insight as to what others players plans are likely to be than we do, that may not always be the case of course. It would be hard to imagine that Thomas Vermaelen and Eden Hazard have not had any conversations about the prospect of playing for Arsenal.

That said, I just do not see how we can afford his transfer fee and wage as well as having a number of young talents who can all play the same position. We do not have the money to stock pile talent like Manchester City so it really looks like a long shot unless a big player was moved on.

Basically the only way I could envisage Eden Hazard coming to Arsenal is if Theo Walcott was sold for whatever reason, whether that be contract issues or otherwise.

Theo Walcott is a tricky one for me. A player I have defended since he joined the club, a player that still has one of the highest goals and assists to games ratio at the top level and vitally a player that still has plenty of scope for improvement when you consider he is still only 22 years of age, the same age that a young and very raw Thierry Henry signed for Arsenal.

We have invested a lot of time and dedication into the player turning him into an International regular. His link up with Robin van Persie has been one of the bright spots of the season. According to @Obinho on twitter, he has created more goals for van Persie than Dennis Bergkamp had for Thierry Henry which is quite fascinating considering the amount of time both players have been out of the game with injuries.

Yet having spoken in such glowing terms about our wide forward, there is a sense that our game can suffer when he is in the side. We cannot keep the ball as well and when faced with a certain type of opposition, Theo’s game is almost totally negated. In AC Milan he stood out like a sore thumb. Running in straight lines into traffic, not being able to avoid any type of pressing and continuously turning over possession.

A player like Eden Hazard is already streets ahead of Theo Walcott in the technical department and would contribute far more to our possession which in turn makes us a better footballing team but there are absolutely no guarantees that his output would replicate that of Theo Walcott. There is no guarantee that Hazard wouldn’t just try and beat one player too many every time and lose the ball. There is no guarantee that he would develop the understanding with van Persie that Theo currently has but sometimes I find myself watching a bad Theo performance and I sigh because he doesn’t always play the Arsene way.

I had hoped that a season without injury would see Walcott turn into a machine. A direct penetrating driving player that may not have the silky skills but would be in the groove, make the right passes, pass and move and score from central runs. That hasn’t happened enough this season, when it has he has been devastating like against Chelsea at the Bridge, Norwich at Carrow Road and Blackburn Rovers at the Emirates but that isn’t enough.

If he manages to do that 7 times out of 10 in future then we do not need Eden Hazard, if he turns 25 and is still doing it 3 times out of 10 then that isn’t good enough for Arsenal. Who knows it may not be in our hands if Walcott’s wish to play center forward pushes him into the clutches of a Chelsea or Liverpool.

And finally I want to end with the quotes of Tomas Rosicky.

“The outside world will try to separate you, they smell blood, so we have to stick together and for the rest of the season fight for fourth place,”

“We are there right now so we want to keep that position. Togetherness is very important; we can’t be influenced by the outside. We have the quality to [finish fourth], there’s no doubt about it, but we have to avoid performances like those last week.”

There is quite a big game tomorrow I think. not sure who we are playing. I will find out later and talk about it tomorrow.

’till then.