Inspired by Andrei Arshavin’s performance in the match against Liverpool, Russian fans believe the playmaker has a bright future ahead of him. Asked whether they believe Arshavin could break into the World Top 23 in the near future, 73% of those who took part in our survey answered 'yes'.

But skeptics were also to be counted with (27% of respondents), but the majority, 16%, link Arshavin’s progress in the rating with the performances of other top world forwards.
Only 11% of respondents proved to be plain pessimists, believing Arshavin’s recent performance was nothing but a fluke. They are also skeptical a Russian player will ever have a living chance of making it into the elite of world football.

Arshavin currently has a rating of 166.72 points. He will need a rating of around 194.52 points to join the World Top 23, the same rating as that of the bottom player on the list, Wofsburg’s Brazilian forward Grafite.

Arshavin will have his work cut out in Sunday’s game against relegation-threatened Middlesbrough. Considering the fact that the Gunners will probably want to same energy to concentrate on their Champions League campaign, it is hard to think of them as the favorites going into Sunday’s game. Arshavin will need to break the threshold of 17.70 rating points, which will not be an easy think to do.