This weekend sees Arsenal take on London rivals Chelsea. A lot of the build-up has been focused on former Arsenal captain Cesc Fabregas, who is now pulling the strings in Chelsea’s midfield.

The Spanish international spent eight years with the Gunners before making a move to boyhood club Barcelona. His return to Spain wouldn’t go exactly to plan and now three seasons later he has returned to England’s capital but this time as a ‘Blues’ player.

Chelsea signing the midfield maestro this summer raised quite a few eyebrows as did Arsene Wenger’s decision not to try and re-sign the twenty-seven year old.

Frenchman Wenger has always been a bit of a footballing father figure to Fabregas and he made the Spaniard an integral part of his team, before he had reached his twentieth birthday. But this pre-season Wenger felt he had enough central midfielders and couldn’t really justify pushing the boat out for his former protege.

In many ways, he was right. He has quite a few to choose from in midfield. They needed more goals and he went out and brought in frontmen Alexis Sanchez and Danny Welbeck. Plus he managed to recruit Calum Chambers and Mathieu Debuchy, moves that bolstered his fragile defence. If any midfielder was to come in this summer, then a defensive hard tackling man would have been viewed as needed more than Cesc.

I’m sure it would have also been in Arsene’s mind that both Jack Wilshere and, in particular, Aaron Ramsey’s development seemed to stall whilst playing in the same team as Cesc Fabregas. It was as if they were in awe of him, a point Fabregas has said in the past about Welshman Ramsey.

But, had the Gunners boss had a blank chequebook, then I’m sure he would have jumped at the chance to bring Cesc back. Because to be honest he’s much better than the likes of Mikel Arteta and Mathieu Flamini.

Fabregas has settled in wonderfully well at Stamford Bridge. He has made six assists in his first six matches in the English Premier League, so far this term. Only Lionel Messi has equalled that tally in Europe’s biggest leagues.

Like he was at Arsenal, Fabregas has become instrumental and helps dictate play with intelligent passing and his ability to keep possession. He is also a leader in the middle of the park, vital considering the departure of Chelsea legend Frank Lampard.

No one in England will know just how good and dangerous Cesc can be than Wenger and the Arsenal coaching team. They will know that he can pop up and score decisive goals, chase down their players and pressure them into mistake or create chances for target-man Diego Costa!

To stop Chelsea this sunday, Arsenal will need to stop their former captain. Ironically the best player for that job could have been Ramsey, as he could have sat on top of the Spaniard and done his upmost to push him closer to Chelsea’s own area. But Ramsey is injured for this weekend’s fixture.

Weirdly enough I don’t think Cesc Fabregas would have had the same impact for Arsenal as he has for Chelsea this season. A main part of his success has been his partnership with Nemanja Matic. The Serb, is a smart midfield marshall who allows Fabregas more time on the ball. As I’ve already stated, Arsenal really miss that defensive presence in their midfield.

It will be interesting to see just how Cecs Fabregas performers against his old team. It could turn into a nightmare for the Arsenal fans if he gets into top gear and helps conduct Chelsea to a big victory on derby day!

Posted on October 3rd, 2014 by scott
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