Andrey Arshavin knows he has little chance of first team football at Arsenal.

The London Evening Standard says after a six-month loan spell at Zenit St Petersburg last season, conversations were held between manager Arsene Wenger and the player's representatives during which Arshavin was told he was surplus to requirements.

It completed a remarkable transformation from a devastatingly effective player who cost a club record £15million to one on the periphery offered only the position of being welcome to fight for his first-team place.

"Feel free to stick around but turn the lights off when you are done," as one source put it.