Manchester City are closing in on Andrei Arshavin after agreeing an £18million deal with Zenit St Petersburg.

The 27-year-old striker flew into London last week amid speculation he was poised to join Arsenal.

But City have stormed into pole position and Arshavin isoncourse to boost manager Mark Hughes's strike options at the struggling club.

Dennis Lachter, Arshavin's agent, has claimed a move to the Emirates was unlikely because of Zenit's massive financial demands.

Arsenal's valuation of the player was closer to £15m - and there was also an issue about the wages that Arshavin wants to seal a move to England.

He sees himself in the £85,000-a-week bracket and at Arsenal only Cesc Fabregas earns anything like that.

Manager Arsene Wenger refuses to undermine the salary structure within the squad and that has opened the way for City's move.

City officials, backed by the wealth of owner Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, met Arshavin and have agreed to meet his club's demands of full payment up front to clinch the deal.

Arshavin had been linked with a host of club's following his impressive form for Russian during Euro 2008.

But the vast majority of them baulked at the asking price that initially stood at £24m.

Arshavin's agent claimed the player's departure was inevitable once the transfer window opened for business in January.

"That is what is going to happen," he said. "There are 10, 15, 20 teams who are interested in him. The question is, can they afford him?"

City can and, following the arrival of Wayne Bridge for £13.5 million from Chelsea last week, Arshavin looks likely to follow him into Eastlands this week.

Arsenal's tactical manoeuvres to capture the Zenit St Petersburg midfielder Andrei Arshavin appear to be approaching their end game, with officials from the player's current club inviting Emirates representatives to Russia to discuss details.

"Zenit have invited Arsenal officials to St Petersburg next Tuesday," Alexei Petrov, a club spokesman, said."This is to show that Zenit do want to find an option which will be acceptable for everyone."

Zenit turned down Arsenal's initial bid of £10m for Arshavin last week but remain keen to seal a deal thought to be closer to the £12m mark. The Arsenal manager Arsène Wenger has repeatedly stressed his club's determination to live within realistic financial means before and during the ­ ­current transfer window.

A key figure in Arsenal's pursuit of the Euro 2008 star appears to be the Gunners' majority shareholder, the Russian billionaire Alisher Usmanov. Zenit are owned by the Russian energy giants Gazprom and Usmanov is chairman of Gazprom­investholding, the company which manages its international investments. It is believed that Arsenal's chief executive, Ivan Gazidis, will travel to Zenit's home city to carry out negotiations on the Usmanov-brokered deal.

Wenger, meanwhile, needs Emmanuel Adebayor to regain the goalscoring form he demonstrated last season, as Arsenal travel to Hull not yet having erased the memory of their ealry-season home defeat to this evening's opponents.

"What is important is that he works hard and contributes to the team," Wenger said. "If he opens the way for other players [to score] for me it is the same."

Wenger promises to treat Hull more seriously this time around. "I feel that on the day we were just not cautious enough. We were a bit too cavalier. It was a big blow because if we'd won that game, we would have been top. They were a complete ­surprise package."

well..that's uk number..let chronic_blade do the calling..

???where is the sauce???pllzzzz tell meee

live where??? sauce? link?

jeez, u guys stayed up all night? respect! now just waiting for the guy to appear on arsenal.com with his jersey..

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Added on February 3, 2009, 7:01 pmoh and he better be worth all this nonsense..