EPL Talk » Fabregas

Cesc Fabregas Claims the Armband

Richard Zervakos — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 18:11:30 +0000

Every summer sees rampant speculation that Barcelona will finally pull Cesc Fabregas away from Arsenal. In the lead up to Saturday’s North London Derby, even former Gunner Emmanuel Adebayor once again fueled rumors by saying that if Arsenal fail to qualify for the Champions League, then Fabregas will be on his way to Catalunya come summer.

Ade’s comments speak to his confidence that his own Manchester City have what it takes to break in to the oligarchy at the top. Robbie Keane’s midweek comments, in which he claimed that Tottenham’s bench was stronger than Arsenal’s, show that he believes Spurs can challenge as well. But as Aston Villa can attest from last season, and Tottenham can attest from 2006: breaking into the top four is no mean feat, and it requires practically perfect concentration for a season that spans 10 months. In the day’s early kickoff, Arsenal hosted their most bitter foes in a match where the visitors were looking to prove their credentials for Europe’s top club competition.

Instead, what was on display yet again was Cesc Fabregas’s commitment to the Arsenal cause. Earlier in the season, he celebrated a goal by kissing his badge and pointing to the stands, as if to say once more that he is indeed an Arsenal player for the long term. Today, Fabregas collected a loose ball at the halfway line, beat two players, nutmegged Ledley King, and then coolly drilled the ball into the low near corner–in a manner that was reminiscent of Thierry Henry’s famous Bernabeu solo effort (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PuCL2wvjOtU) –before jubilantly sprinting toward the stands in celebration. While Robin van Persie’s breakthrough goal gave Arsenal a slightly fortunate lead, the captain’s strike was both a literal goal that put the game beyond Spurs, and a figurative statement to fans and foes alike: that this team will go as far as Cesc Fabregas will take them.

Earlier in the season, Pat Dolan of Setanta Sports criticized Fabregas for not celebrating enthusiastically enough when he scored a late goal. While Dolan’s commentary is often prescient, in that case it seemed to be a bit of a reach. Fabregas is in the unfortunate position of having to constantly deny that he has designs on returning to Spain. He has said whenever asked that he would like to go back someday, but not in the near future. This is the sort of game that clearly demonstrates that his heart is with the Gunners–and he showed his fans exactly that with a spectacular effort against their fiercest rivals.

On top of the performance of Fabregas, it should be noted that Arsenal finally managed to keep a clean sheet and by all rights should have had more goals. Eduardo, a first half substitute for the injured Nicklas Bendtner (whose groin pull will be one of the few low points of the match), spurned three legitimate chances to score. Two of those chances were efforts that he ordinarily would make short work of, and the third was a header that he could easily have put to either side of Heurelho Gomes. Abou Diaby made a great run late on a corner, only to have the ball hit his shoulder instead of his head, and Ramsey and Fabregas had a fantastic opportunity right at the death to pile more misery on Spurs, but one would suspect that the injury to Sebastien Bassong and the three goal lead led to their weak concession of the ball.

All of this came on the heels of the late collapses at West Ham and AZ Alkmaar (excepting Liverpool in the Carling Cup because of the vastly different sides). What Arsene Wenger must do is use this victory, and all its positives, to push Arsenal onward and upward. If they can learn to keep a clean sheet and keep scoring three goals even when spurning five other clear chances, then the title race will surely have to include a North London team–and no, Robbie Keane, not Tottenham.

Can Anderson Be the Key?

David Schiavone — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 15:47:53 +0000

The Midfield Magician

Cast your mind back to May 2009, Manchester United were comprehensively and soundly trounced in Rome by a magical Barcelona side, inspired by Xavi and Iniesta. For many, the lack of quality in the centre of the park was plain to see, Carrick looked lethargic and unsure of himself, Fletcher was missed, this, a surprise in itself. Club legends, Giggs and Scholes were ineffective and nowhere to be seen.

The class of the Manchester United midfield is weak in comparison their Premier League rivals, Chelsea with Essien, Lampard, Ballack and Liverpool have Mascherano, Aquilani and Gerrard respectively. Carrick, Fletcher and Scholes just do not compare.

Some of you may cry, “You forgot about Owen Hargreaves!” Indeed I did, mainly due to the length of time he has been injured and latest estimates say he will return around Christmas.

With the transfer window almost closed there are no centre midfielders in sight. So I put it to you that, Anderson Luís de Abreu Oliveira or just plain Anderson will flourish this season.

In my opinion, Anderson possesses all the qualities to become a top class midfielder, he has pace, acceleration, strength, a strong positional sense coupled with the ability to thread through a match winning final ball. He is a combatitive all action midfielder, beginning his career further up the park, he has since developed a very useful defensive side to an already impressive array of attacking talents.

Anderson reminds me a little of Kaka but with a hint of Roy Keane, obviously these are massively talented players, whose level of ability he has not yet reached, but I think he can and has to an extent combined the best parts of their respective games.

He can sit in front of the defence and play a disciplined role, spreading passes to his teammates further up the field. He can also play as an attacking midfielder, a place where he is most comfortable. In this position he offers all the samba skills you can want – just ask Cesc Fabregas – he has vision, dribbling skills and an eye for goal.

The single shortfall of Anderson’s game, and it is a rather large one, is his uncanny ability to do everything right in the lead up to a shot then fluff the final act, footballs have been found as far away as China. Seemingly he did not bring his shooting boots to Old Trafford.

But I have hopes he can eradicate this untimely habit throughout the forthcoming season, and if pre-season is anything to go by we are in for a few treats, as his sublime free-kick against Boca Juniors was a joy to behold.

I think this could be the season where stamps his authority on this Manchester United side, he has already shown in the past he can mix it up with the big boys dominating in games against Fabregas and Steven Gerrard during his first season with United. He may just prove that there is infact life after a certain Portuguese.

Torres, Fabregas: Premier League Stars Open Confederation Scoring

Ethan Armstrong — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 16:04:43 +0000

Few would have expected New Zealand to pull an upset over a Spain who entered the fray of the FIFA Confederations Cup boasting a 32 match unbeaten streak. But no one could have predicted that Liverpool’s Fernando Torres would score a hat trick within the first seventeen minutes of play.

Torres rapidly erases any doubt he’s the best striker on the planet these days.

Earlier in the day, I had been disappointed watching Iraq and host country South Africa start off the competition. Not only because it was a defensive, uninspired 0-0 draw. But because the fixture gave me nothing to write about. With no Benni McCartney in sight—it’s a long story, Steven Pienaar was the only name I recognized. And though he showed some influence after being introduced in the 85th, there was no time for the Everton man to help his country pierce the goal line.

I was hoping an EPL player would score or at least set up a great goal, so I could convert watching the matches into some relevant subject matter for EPL Talk.

When I saw Spain’s team sheet, sheet I was quickly filled with optimism. Torres, Fabregas, Alonso and Riera were all among the starters.

After Barcelona’s 2-0 decimation of Manchester United in the Champions League, I expected Spain’s backbone to be full of Camp Nou genius. But with only Carles Puyol and Xavi Hernandez in from Barca, it was clear Liverpool’s excellent season had made its impression on Vincente del Bosque. He fielded three Merseyside starters and added Alvaro Arbelo in the 53rd minutes. And with Arsenal’s Fabregas slotted in behind Torres and Villa, I just knew I’d get my EPL inspired goal.

Maybe del Bosque, a former Real Madrid manager, wasn’t as impressed by Barca’s Rome heroics as most of the rest of us.

Better for me.

Torres took no time. Picking up Fabregas’s pass on six minutes, he scooped the ball from twenty yards, curling it around the defender and keeper into the top corner of the net. Most strikers would have tried to lose their man first. Torres decided there was no need.

Then on 14 minutes, he was at it again. David Villa slotted the ball through traffic to Torres who side-footed it in.

Just as I was texting a friend to say, El Niño just scored two in the first 14! Capdevila launched the ball into the area and Torres put his head to it with force. Hat trick within seventeen minutes. After his third goal, Torres hesitated to put his arms up, as if thinking this is too easy, should I even celebrate?

And on top of the four goals from Premier League men, La Liga’s David Villa made his own brilliant and direct contributions as well. In addition to his sharp service to Torres, on 48 minutes, Villa was on hand to eat up a wayward New Zealand ball in the box and side-foot it into the net past the lunging Glen Moss.

New Zealand were demolished. It could have been worse but a couple dubious offsides calls kept Torres and Villa in check. Each had his chances to burst through into one-on-one territory where each man would certainly have found the composure and skill to beat Moss.

Spain’s unbeaten streak rises to 33. They are two away from tying Brazil’s record. No question they belong at number one in the world rankings.

Cesc Fabregas is on Fire, Literally (Video)

The Gaffer — Sat, 03 May 2008 18:00:54 +0000

Cesc Fabregas stars in an unbelievable new ad where he is set alight but continues to juggle the ball and score a goal.

Nike is continuing to push the envelope with their creative football ads. This one is so intriguing to watch especially to see how the ball reacts to being on fire. Even with the stunt being handled in a controlled environment with experts on hand to ensure no one is harmed, you have to admit that Fabregas has a lot of balls to even try this.

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