Arshavin: I want a piece of Ronaldo

The £15 million signing from Zenit St Petersburg is set to return to the Gunners' starting XI against Sir Alex Ferguson's champions-elect at the weekend, having missed Arsenal's previous two matches against United and Chelsea through ineligibility and illness respectively.

And having netted six goals in 10 league games since arriving at the beginning of February - including four against Liverpool at Anfield - the playmaker is keen to help seal all three points for Arsene Wenger's side, delaying the Red Devils' title celebrations in the process.

But despite recently revealing he does not usually accept shirts from opposing players - apart from collecting No.9 jerseys for a former coach in his homeland - he will be asking for Ronaldo's No.7 top on Saturday in order to collect brownie points at home.

"I do not like to swap shirts with opponents," he said. "I only tried to do it once before, just for my wife. She asked me to bring her Cristiano Ronaldo's jersey.

"She likes him very much as a player. But my attempt to do it after our national team match against Portugal failed."

NEWS: Shirty Arshavin breaks his own rules

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Gregg Davies

Gregg Davies is the Chief Sub Editor of FourFourTwo magazine, joining the team in January 2008 and spending seven years working on the website. He supports non-league behemoths Hereford and commentates on Bulls matches for Radio Hereford FC. His passions include chocolate hobnobs and attempting to shoehorn Ronnie Radford into any office conversation.