Former Zenit midfielder Andrei Arshavin responded to the taunts from Dynamo board member Dmitry Gafin, with his comments cited by Sports24.
Arshavin recalled that St. Petersburg had lent a hand to Moscow clubs, sending a team of its staff to help lift Dynamo from a difficult patch. He suggested that even his own visit to the Dynamo training base helped break the curse and foster a winning mentality. According to him, Dynamo fans were surprised by how quickly the shift occurred, noting that the team had risen to third place in the standings.
Dmitry Gafin, a Moscow native who moved to St. Petersburg, voiced a positive stance toward the city. Zenit president Alexander Medvedev had previously spoken of calming ‘the horses’ in the blue-white camp. Gafin’s remarks followed a recent Super League win by St. Petersburg’s women’s squad over CSKA. The same week, after SKA hockey defeated Spartak, he quipped about the saying “A country without meat.”
In the 16th round of the Russian Premier League, Dynamo Moscow defeated CSKA Moscow by 3 goals to 2. The result moved Marcel Lička’s Dynamo up to third place, while Krasnodar sat in second and Zenit led the race for the championship.
Earlier, CSKA had responded to similar comments from Zenit’s president about “taming the horses.”