Arshavin reveals Arsenal’s initiation ceremony for newcomers

By 1970’s Gooner

Arshavin has been speaking after his debut game for Arsenal. He was very impressed with the Emirates and the crowd who were behind him all the time. He described the pitch as perfect like a billiards table:

“I think that the greatest happiness for any player is to play at the home ground, which holds 60 000 fans. The grass was perfect, just like a billiard table. It was a pleasure to play there”.

He considered that a major reason for Arsenal not scoring was the excellent performance of Martin Fulop in the Sunderland goal.

“Today, their goalkeeper throughout the match was perfect. I think he played with no errors and helped Sunderland win the two points”.

Arshavin also revealed that he has been asked to undergo an initiation ceremony as all newcomers at Arsenal have to do!

This involves standing on a chair and singing a song or reciting a poem!

“The club has a tradition where every rookie after dinner before a game should stand on a chair and do something. You can sing a song, read poetry” he said.

However he has not endured this yet because someone else had to do it first!

“I did not have to do it prior to the Sunderland game as the team’s new doctor had to undergo the procedure”.

He must be referring to Arsenal’s newly appointed doctor Gary O’Driscoll.

He replaced Ian Beasley who has taken up a role within the England national setup.

Gary officially started his new role on Friday 20th February but Arshavin did not reveal what he actually did on that dreaded chair!

What was apparent from Arshavin’s performance against Sunderland was that he needs time to get used to the speed and hustle of the English league and also to his new team mates.

“I need some more time. This is required in order to understand the football and to get used to the other players. Because it is one thing to train together and another to play in a competitive match”.

Wise words indeed. And we wish Andrey every success in his forthcoming games.


P.S We were, here at "Arsenal Analysis", very pleased to see yesterday that even “The Sun” newspaper has published a story that we first revealed as long as last week!

In our article published on the 13th February titled:"Eduardo dressed up like you’ve never seen him before" we featured Eduardo in various attire when he dressed up for a series of commercials for a TV station.

He had to dress up for the part putting on a wig of long hair, a large mustache and the inevitable chain round the neck. He was filmed posing alongside a beautiful blond.


You can see these pictures also in The Sun