Pick of the press
Here’s some of Cesc Fabregas’s press following the Manchester United victory. First up we have some more post-match quotes from Cesc. Followed by a few snippets from the papers.
“Fabregas, who was at his influential best, said: “We did it for the boss because he has believed in us. We owe him a lot and we have to show that on the pitch.
“Sometimes we lose and everyone says we are not good. Then we play the same way against United and everyone says we are good. We know how that goes, and we have always played the same. Sometimes you are fortunate in front of goal and sometimes not. That’s football.
“However, the good thing about this team is that we have never put our heads down and felt sorry for ourselves. We want to get better, to play better, and we did that here.
In football, people are always going to be talking about your performance, and of course we didn’t win the last few games. We definitely knew there would be some talk about Arsenal, ‘Are they capable of winning anything?’ But we don’t have to be affected and we showed we are a good team.
“We showed great character against a very good team and still won under a lot of pressure. Arsenal are contenders. We want to win and we showed we have the qualities to do it.”
– Daily Express
“Fábregas said: “We did it for him [Wenger] as well because he has believed in a lot of us. Apart from [William] Gallas and [Mikaël] Silvestre, the rest of us may never have had the chance to play football without him. We owe him a lot.”
– The Guardian
“The superiority of [Arsenals] his midfield, with Nasri, Fabregas and Denilson playing their little triangles around a disappointing Michael Carrick and Anderson, was a factor too, as Ferguson grudgingly acknowledged: “Sometimes you have to hold your hand up. Arsenal played good football at times.”
– The Independent
“Cesc Fabregas – Involved in many of the sweet passing moves that have become the trademark of this Arsène Wenger team, he enabled his side to get the better of the midfield exchanges.”
- The Independent
“Fabregas spun Gary Neville like a top, Walcott made the diagonal decoy run and the Spanish midfielder could not have presented a chance in more immaculate fashion had he had a napkin draped over his forearm.
Nasri finished with the sort of thumping authority that has been missing from most of Arsenal’s start to the season. “
- The Sun
“As for Fabregas, he merely gave of his best; when a footballer is as gifted and intelligent as the young Spaniard, it is usually enough.”
- The Telegraph
“The midfield functioned better than it has all season, with Samir Nasri and Abou Diaby linking brightly with Fábregas, and DenÃlson tidying up behind them. Fábregas’s rapport with Nasri augers well. Two imaginative, nimble ball players, who don’t mind rough stuff either (well, for Arsenal) to earn the right to play, their connection delivered the decisive moment to tilt an engrossing game the way of the Londoners…
“Fábregas’s threaded pass made it look as if United’s defence simply vanished. Nasri arrived to thump the ball without the need for any kind of touch to tee himself up…
“One hesitates to say Wenger’s heavily criticised youngsters came of age, but they certainly grew up a bit. It meant a lot to one of the oldest heads in the side. Fábregas warmly shook the hands of his opponents, blasted a ball into the crowd and raised a victorious fist to the skies.”
- The Guardian
“Cesc Fabregas 8 (man of the match) – This was the Fabregas of old, the one for whom both Barcelona and Real Madrid are willing to pay more than £30million. The architect supreme”
- The Sunday Mirror
“…they had three points, thanks to the goals of Samir Nasri, the craft of Cesc Fabregas and the resilience of William Gallas.
Gallas and Fabregas were the last to leave the field at the end. They were at opposite ends of the stadium and they represent different aspects of this club. Gallas gesticulated wildly as if to say “I made a show when we lost, now watch me make one when we win.” Fabregas, as ever, was more muted, but only when the final whistle went.
Before that, he was everywhere, bringing precision to everything he does, drawing gasps from the crowd only when a pass didn’t find the target. They expect much from him…”
- The Irish Independent
“Cesc Fabregas was immense, Diaby was terrific until he was overtaken by exhaustion in the second half, and Denilson’s performance in the defensive midfield role was startlingly good. These were young men standing up for themselves, reminding us that youth is not always callow, that toughness is not the preserve of the experienced.”
- The Times
“It’s football and we were talking about it yesterday,” shrugged Fabregas when he ignored an invitation to talk about Arsenal’s difficulties and just how important a victory it was. True, but the significance of it all was there in the raging pride and relief in his eyes. “It changes so quickly,” the young midfielder added.”
– The Independent
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yeah.. =)
i tink they will cuz da senior team are watching them from da dugout..
crazygal_miLa
November 11, 2008
I think so MiLa and hopefully our young guns will have a good game
Rose
November 11, 2008
i’m hoping to catch a glimpse of Fran Merida cuz i’ve never seen him play before.. hehehe..
do u tink he’s gonna play for da Carling Cup match against Wigan tonite??
crazygal_miLa
November 11, 2008
haha me too. You know I don’t know why but I forget he is Francesc all the time and I see ‘Francesc Fabregas’ on lists and things and I’m like who? LOL where is Cesc, I’m looking for Cesc…. oooooohhhhh! that is CESC
haha you’d think I’d have gotten the hang of his name by now… but no.
I really don’t like it when they say a player is the new whoever, or the next whoever, because each player is unique and no two players have exactly the same game so it’s kind of stoopid
Fran Merida is the next Fran Merida 
mj
November 11, 2008
oohh..
i’m easily confused cuz Cesc also has da word ‘Fran’ in his name.. hehehe..
thanks MJ.. Fran Merida is another guy to watch for..
he’s been said to be da next Cesc.. 
alot of young players are being labelled as da next Cesc like Ramsey, Merida, etc..
but there can only be one Cesc, dat is da man himself – Francesc ‘Cesc’ Fabregas!!
crazygal_miLa
November 11, 2008
lol Fran is Fran Merida he is in the Carling Cup team that will play tonite
Arsene was talking about him – the part I thought was interesting was what Arsene said about passes in the final third 
mj
November 11, 2008
wow!!
juz by looking at those stats make me feel happy for Cesc..
Denilson’s stats was impressive as well; he’s becoming more like Flamini.. dat’s a gd sight..
by da way MJ; who is ‘Fran’?? is Wenger referring to Cesc as in ‘Francesc Fabregas’?? hehehe..
crazygal_miLa
November 11, 2008
I was reading some stuff ahead of tonites CC match and Arsene said
“If you analyse a game and look who gives the ball every time in the final third, you will see Fran. That is the most difficult part of the game and that is where he is strong.”
Now he was talking about Fran and the CC team there but I was looking at your stats TA and you can see that of all the midfield Cesc is the one who gives almost all his passes into the final third and so he is our strongest player at the most difficult part of the game. 90% of his passes are every time in the final third. Diaby is second with 75%
Yet there is almost no difference between Diaby and Cesc for accuracy but a big difference in the number of difficult passes being attempted.
I’m so proud of Cesc
he’s just so good at what he does!!!
mj
November 11, 2008
wow thanks for pulling all of those stats TA! You know how I like to look at the stats. As they aren’t subjective or opinion based
Rose
November 11, 2008
Sam look away man I’m going to be getting all pointy headed
Stat attack time – I found this interesting
Cesc Fabregas
Total Passes 56
Total passes in the oppositions final third: 50
Total accuracy: 77%
Total key passes: 4
Goals: 0
Assists: 1
Assist attempts: 4
Tackles won: 2
Tackles lost: 0
Clearances: 4
Ball (possession) recovered: 3
Fouls: 3
Abou Diaby
Total Passes 41
Total passes in the oppositions final third: 31
Total accuracy: 78%
Total key passes: 0
Goals: 0
Assists: 0
Assist attempts: 0
Tackles won: 1
Tackles lost: 0
Clearances: 1
Ball (possession) recovered: 2
Fouls: 3
Theo Walcott
Total Passes 17
Total passes in the oppositions final third: 11
Total accuracy: 76%
Total key passes: 0
Goals: 0
Assists: 0
Assist attempts: 0
Tackles won: 2
Tackles lost: 0
Clearances: 0
Ball (possession) recovered: 0
Fouls: 0
Samir Nasri
Total Passes 37
Total passes in the oppositions final third: 28
Total accuracy: 88%
Total key passes: 2
Goals: 2
Assists: 0
Assist attempts: 2
Tackles won: 0
Tackles lost: 0
Clearances: 0
Ball (possession) recovered: 3
Fouls: 0
Denilson
Total Passes 65
Total passes in the oppositions final third: 34
Total accuracy: 92%
Total key passes: 0
Goals: 0
Assists: 0
Assist attempts: 0
Tackles won: 4
Tackles lost: 0
Clearances: 2
Ball (possession) recovered: 5
Fouls: 3
Interesting!! You can hardly call Diaby Cesc’s minder when Cesc did far more defensive work. Cesc also had far more passes into the oppositions final third than anyone else, as per usual. His accuracy rate given the percentage of his passes into the final third is excellent. It was a fantastic performance from him. Nasri obviously is man of the match with 2 great goals and 2 key passes… but Cesc’s work rate was crucial as was Denilson’s defensive contribution.
The stats also show that our wingers need to help out more on defence.
TA
November 11, 2008
You’re welcome Rummba
sam
November 10, 2008
Aww. I like how he gave the victory in Wenger, when everybody else seemed to be doubting Wenger. <3
plu
November 10, 2008
Wow,love all the quotes….now what will I do with my Monday? lol…;D
Robbie96
November 10, 2008
I think he would have still been a world-class player no matter what!! BUT it’s so nice he said that about owing so much to Arsene it’s such a modest thing to say and so loyal
Jess
November 10, 2008
Lol. Agree with george. So typical of the press, no?
But of course, always a delight to see praise for Cesc. Thanks for getting all of this together in one place bb!
rummba
November 10, 2008
Thanks TA
sam
November 10, 2008
saw this in the Glasgow Daily record:
Not far behind Nasri for sustained excellence in a highly-charged atmosphere was Cesc Fabregas, whose minders Abou Diaby and Denilson afforded him licence to spray passes across North London like a subway graffiti artist.
Thought ya might like it
TA
November 10, 2008
It’s funny reading some of the press today talking about how great Arsenal are when just a couple of days ago they were writing us off. It’s a rollercoaster ride
george
November 10, 2008
Cesc deserves to get so many praises…He was too fabulous…He made good passes…He tried to do his best…GO CESC!!!
***Nelly***
November 10, 2008
nice quotes!!
crazygal_miLa
November 10, 2008
Thanks! Cesc deserves many praise :0)
siew lan
November 10, 2008
Liked what he said about doing it for Wenger. Class.
TA
November 10, 2008
Thanks Sam. You’ve saved me a lot of time.
DC Wash
November 9, 2008