Rafael Benítez Maudes
01-08-09, 02:27 PM
After signing for Arsenal from Zenit St. Petersburg in the January transfer window, Andrey Arshavin took the Premier League by storm.
Despite this, he rates the quality of the opposition he has faced very highly.
“None of the teams have been easy,” he told FourFourTwo magazine.
“A lot depends on the course of the game. Fulham were a particularly difficult opponent, not fun to play against. They were very organised, very disciplined, constantly closing you down.”
The Russian then went on to compare Arsenal's title rivals and stated that he thought Liverpool were the most difficult opponents he had played against.
“But if you're talking about Manchester United and Liverpool, Liverpool were the much harder to play against,” said the Russian.
Arshavin also weighed up the impact of Ronaldo's move to Real Madrid, saying, “It's impossible to replace Cristiano Ronaldo and I hope they'll be weaker as a result."
“If there were many others like him, Real Madrid wouldn't have paid £80m.”
“On the other hand, Alex Ferguson has won a lot of titles over the years, a lot of them without Cristiano Ronaldo, so he knows how to win trophies with other players,” he continued.
“But it will take time for them to compensate for his absence and I hope that we can make use of this and overtake United.”
Commenting on Wenger's footballing philosophy the Russian said, “I don't want us to be playing for the result alone, I want us to carry on playing the way we do, the way I love.”
“I love attacking football. My own view would always be: let's score more than we concede; rather than hang back by our own goal and wait for a single chance to score,” he continued.
“Anyway, if you look at Arsenal, the squad we have isn't designed to win 1-0.
“That's why you have 60,000 coming to the Emirates, they come to see something beautiful, something memorable.”
Despite this, he rates the quality of the opposition he has faced very highly.
“None of the teams have been easy,” he told FourFourTwo magazine.
“A lot depends on the course of the game. Fulham were a particularly difficult opponent, not fun to play against. They were very organised, very disciplined, constantly closing you down.”
The Russian then went on to compare Arsenal's title rivals and stated that he thought Liverpool were the most difficult opponents he had played against.
“But if you're talking about Manchester United and Liverpool, Liverpool were the much harder to play against,” said the Russian.
Arshavin also weighed up the impact of Ronaldo's move to Real Madrid, saying, “It's impossible to replace Cristiano Ronaldo and I hope they'll be weaker as a result."
“If there were many others like him, Real Madrid wouldn't have paid £80m.”
“On the other hand, Alex Ferguson has won a lot of titles over the years, a lot of them without Cristiano Ronaldo, so he knows how to win trophies with other players,” he continued.
“But it will take time for them to compensate for his absence and I hope that we can make use of this and overtake United.”
Commenting on Wenger's footballing philosophy the Russian said, “I don't want us to be playing for the result alone, I want us to carry on playing the way we do, the way I love.”
“I love attacking football. My own view would always be: let's score more than we concede; rather than hang back by our own goal and wait for a single chance to score,” he continued.
“Anyway, if you look at Arsenal, the squad we have isn't designed to win 1-0.
“That's why you have 60,000 coming to the Emirates, they come to see something beautiful, something memorable.”