At the time Cesc Fabregas seemed like the best thing that could’ve happened to Arsenal when he was breaking into the team. A young Spanish playmaker who offered a new dimension to Arsenal’s attack. But despite his undeniable quality, Arsenal’s style and fortunes evidently changed after he cemented himself in our first team.
What were Arsenal known for in the early 2000’s? Ruthlessness in defence, dominating midfielders and direct forwards. Arsenal went from a team based on skill and physicality to a team based mostly on skill. By 2010 Arsenal’s midfield had transformed from a number of physical specimens like Patrick Vieira and Gilberto Silva to quite small, playmakers like Fabregas and Jack Wilshere.
With Arsenal coming into their final years at Highbury this also saw the transition between the more physical type of box to box midfielder and the playmaker like Fabregas. Despite Fabregas featuring regularly in the 2004-05 season, Vieira moving to Juventus after the F.A. Cup triumph that season helped see Fabregas secure his place in the first team for Highbury’s farewell season.
Now without the all-round exploits of Vieira in the Arsenal midfield, Fabregas and Gilberto were now carrying out their specific roles rather than being complete midfielders like Vieira. With Fabregas taking the attacking duties in midfield he was clearly a world class talent in the making, but looking back I’m not sure if he was the right type of midfielder to put into the team.
Yes, I know how great he was for us but with Fabregas moving into the midfield I feel this saw Arsenal’s build up play became slower and more controlled rather than the direct and powerful attacking of when we had Vieira in the side, with his goal away at Anfield in 04/05 and White Hart Lane in 03/04 sticking out as examples of Arsenal’s ruthlessness in attack.
As Fabregas focused more on building the play rather than actually attacking and moving with the ball this saw Arsenal gradually become less and less direct over time. If you were to ask most they would’ve probably said Fabregas was our best player during the later stages of his Arsenal career which is true but even though that may be the case, his style of play merged into Arsenal’s style of play which has dragged on a bit too long for me.
Yes, the beautiful passing football associated with the Spaniard was and still is a pleasure to watch, but Arsenal were very much a technical team as well as a physical one before Fabregas, with most players at the club having both sides to their game.
We’ve seen several players in that Fabregas mould come to Arsenal since moving to The Emirates like Samir Nasri, Jack Wilshere coming through the youth ranks and Santi Cazorla among others. But has it been too much in comparison to the players of a Vieira mould?
In hindsight that could’ve been why Abou Diaby was brought to the club in January 2006, being of a similar mould to Vieira the Frenchman showed when fit he had very similar qualities to Vieira, goals like against Newcastle away in 08/09 spring to mind when likening the two. I can only think to myself about what Diaby could’ve been for Arsenal if he wasn’t so injury prone because for me he could have been a very fit replacement.
But even eleven years after Diaby came to North London, we haven’t seen anyone of a similar style come to the club. We’ve seen more Fabregas type players come in, who no matter how good they are technically can’t replicate the importance of that commander in midfield.
Yes, there is a space for them in the team but for me, Arsenal have needed to bring in a midfielder with presence to control games for them. Sadly at the moment, it feels like there are no commanders in that Arsenal midfield and that shows in the form table, with the Gunners losing three of their last five games.
So even though it’s not likely I’m hopeful that we finally get that Vieira type of midfielder in the summer who can bring back the ruthlessness and directness of the Arsenal of old, rather than another Fabregas type to add to the list. And yes, Cesc Fabregas was a great player while at Arsenal but looking back he didn’t seem like the right solution to losing Patrick Vieira.
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