Arsenal’s Russian forward Andrei Arshavin, who has been sitting at the top of the FTBL Top 23 of Russian players without serious competition for three months running, seems to have finally found in former teammate and current Dynamo Moscow forward Aleksandr Kerzhakov a worthy rival: Kerzhakov has scored 5 goals in his last 3 appearances, picking up 63 rating points in the process to clear the 100-point bar for the first time.

Kerzhakov goes into the midterm recess in the Russian Premier League with an overall rating of 104.45 points. The gap between Arshavin and the Dynamo striker amounts to 30 rating points.

Kerzhakov will have planks of 3.60 and 8.10 rating points to beat in his next two games. If he carries on in his current form, he stands a realistic chance of overtaking Arshavin, the most popular Russian player at the moment, in FTBL ratings.