Marked for Alexandr Putsko
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad11 Jan 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Igor Gorbunov
127 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Arsenal Tula lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad11 Jan 2027
A fracture rules Vitaly Shakhov out for 102 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Arsenal Tula will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Match6 Jan 2027
The small margins put Arsenal Tula out
Out, 0‑1 to CSKA Moscow, and the long argument about which of the small moments decided it. The league is all there is now, and everybody knows it.
Match9 Jan 2027
The run at home goes on for Arsenal Tula
14 matches unbeaten here. Every visiting manager is asked about it in the week before, which is precisely why it keeps going.
Match9 Jan 2027
6 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Squad11 Jan 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Arsenal Tula this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match9 Jan 2027
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Arsenal Tula can tell you which week it ends in.
Squad11 Jan 2027
The manager makes an example of Ivan Ignatjev
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Player ratings11 Jan 2027
Successful dribbles: 17. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad4 Jan 2027
Vitaly Shakhov breaks a bone — 110 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 110 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad4 Jan 2027
There are footballers who have a good season and footballers a season is remembered for, and the second kind get their names read out in a hall in the summer. Arsenal Tula will be quietly delighted and privately nervous.
Match2 Jan 2027
4 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Player ratings4 Jan 2027
Successful dribbles: 22. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Reziuan Mirzov was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Words at Arsenal Tula training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Daniil Penchikov is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Loan watch4 Jan 2027
“I watch every Arsenal Tula game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Chaika runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Player ratings4 Jan 2027
A mark of 7.28, and nobody in the ground would argue with it. He was involved in everything that mattered and most of what did not.
Match2 Jan 2027
The crowd waited for a goal that never came. Yenisey defended in numbers and left with what they came for, and the two sides could be playing still without troubling a scorer.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market16 Nov 2026
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Player ratings16 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 22. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad16 Nov 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Arsenal Tula this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match14 Nov 2026
It finished 2‑0, and it was Igor Gorbunov’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Arsenal Tula.
Player ratings16 Nov 2026
Ivan Ignatjev was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.35. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Player ratings16 Nov 2026
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 19 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
Squad16 Nov 2026
The manager makes an example of Vitaly Shakhov
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Player ratings16 Nov 2026
15 defensive actions and a clean sheet at the end of them. A defender's afternoon can only be told by what did not happen, which is why nobody makes a highlights package out of one and every manager in the division would take it.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Words at Arsenal Tula training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Artem Popov is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
Alexandr Putsko, 33, rolls back the years — 7.95
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.95 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Squad26 Oct 2026
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Arsenal Tula may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Maxim Maximov was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Match24 Oct 2026
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Miloš Brnović. 1‑0 against Rotor, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
Marked 8.40 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Words at Arsenal Tula training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Daniil Penchikov is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Ivan Ignatjev dropped after a run of poor form
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 14 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 12. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match26 Sep 2026
The unbeaten run reaches 9. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Reziuan Mirzov was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad28 Sep 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Kirill Bolshakov, and the manager let it.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Defensive actions: 17. He was first to everything and second to nothing, and the goalkeeper had an easy day because of it.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
A mark of 7.75, and nobody in the ground would argue with it. He was involved in everything that mattered and most of what did not.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match12 Sep 2026
No end in sight to Arsenal Tula's wait for a win
7 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Arsenal Tula has to find a result from somewhere.
Match12 Sep 2026
The unbeaten run reaches 7. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Maxim Maximov was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 19. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad14 Sep 2026
The manager makes an example of Ivan Ignatjev
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Artem Popov falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Squad14 Sep 2026
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
Match12 Sep 2026
Nil-nil, and few chances worth the name. Chelyabinsk came to defend and left with exactly what they came for.
Market14 Sep 2026
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad31 Aug 2026
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Match29 Aug 2026
5 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Roman Izotov was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Words at Arsenal Tula training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Daniil Penchikov is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Squad31 Aug 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Vitaly Shakhov, and the manager let it.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 16 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 25. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Reziuan Mirzov was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Alexandr Melikhov, and the manager let it.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Vitaly Shakhov falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Match8 Aug 2026
Arsenal Tula hit back inside 2 minutes
Shinnik held the lead for 2 minutes, which is not long enough to enjoy it. Arsenal Tula answered before the celebration had properly finished, and the shape of the afternoon changed with it.
Market10 Aug 2026
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.