Andrei Arshavin has said that he had almost suffered depression at Arsenal in the last season.
Arshavin has recently left Arsenal to return to his boyhood club Zenit Saint Petersburg.
Arshavin wasn’t given that many playing opportunities by Arsene Wenger in the last season and he was upset with that. According to the Russian veteran, sitting on the bench continuously affected his mentality adversely.
When asked about the last season, Arshavin said, “It was a horrible season for me. To sit on the sidelines in every game was quite frustrating. I was close to suffering depression.”
“It’s very hard to train when you know that you are not going to go on the pitch. My life had become monotonous at Arsenal.”
“I wanted to get out of that place and I am happy that I managed to do it. It’s wonderful to be back in Russia.”
When asked if he wants to make a comeback to the Russian national team, Arshavin said, “Off course, I want to do that. Every player in the world wants to play for his country and I am no different. However, I have no idea if being a part of Zenit will help me in making a national team comeback or not.”
This is Arshavin’s second tenure at Zenit Saint Petersburg. His first tenure was 9 years long during which he had played 236 matches for Zenit and had found the back of the net 52 times.
In 2009, Zenit sold Arshavin to Arsenal. The Russian striker had a very impressive debut season at Emirates stadium, but, after that, his performance kept going downhill and Arsene Wenger lost confidence in him.
In the last 4 seasons, Arshavin featured for the Gunners in 105 games and netted 23 times.