exactly, Arshavin has never been known for his defensive work, we knew this when we bought him. yet he is getting shit for it when he has been rather good going forward which is his primary job. the point is that he has been mismanaged completely....not playing him in his proper position, not keeping him in shape or motiviated. sure part of that falls on the player but developing/improving/motivating players is the job of the manager as well and for me, Wenger has done a really poor job with him.
If I had to choose between cutting my losses on players like Chamakh, Rosicky, Diaby, Squillaci etc or cutting my losses on Arshavin, I'd get rid of the others first, reason being is half of them barely play 2 matches a season and the others are so sh*t they have nothing to offer.
At least with Arshavin he is almost always available to play and has the talent to do something special, he might not be producing it but a few goals and a bit of confidence would change all that. I'd say we could change all of this, but we can't...there's noone to motivate him or get him in shape at the club.
"I really like Arsenal. Do you really like Arsenal, or only Arsenal with trophies?" - Dennis Bergkamp.
"Which Arsenal do they want back, the one Arsene created?" - Tony Adams.