Wenger: Why Arshavin in the centre worked

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Date	Time	C	Opponent	F	A	R	S
05 Dec	3:00 PM	P	Stoke City (H)	2	0	Win

With strikers Robin van Persie, Eduardo and Nicklas Bendtner out injured, manager Arsène Wenger was forced to play Andrey Arshavin as a target man against Stoke City yesterday.

The Russian international is perhaps better suited as a second striker who penetrates the opposition defence from a wide or deeper position.

However, his little cameo as a target man over the weekend resulted in a goal, and the little magician could very well have had a hat-trick as well.

Wenger admits that it is probably still too early to decide whether Arshavin is the ideal replacement for van Persie, who is out for 4-6 months with an ankle injury.

The Frenchman said: "When it works, they like it. I don't think he was a fanatic to play centre forward but I am convinced because he has good body power and movement and good technique.

"He has intelligent movement and it worked today. He could have had two or three goals and overall he did very well.

"I don't know yet, I have to try it again and to see if it works at home, away from home and to find as well a balance because I had many technical players around him with Rosicky, Nasri, Fabregas, Eboue, and all penetrating from deep positions.

"That is needed when you have a player like Arshavin. We will see but at the moment we do not have much choice with Walcott out, Bendtner out, van Persie of course.

"But we could get Walcott back, we could get Bendtner back in two to three weeks. We had as well Diaby and Song out today, they should be available next week."

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