Cesc Fabregas

Results

Date	Time	C	Opponent	F	A	R	S
26 Dec	3:00 PM	P	Aston Villa (H)	3	0	Win

The story of my Sunday, because this is all about me - not the Arsenal, begins on Saturday evening, with the dying embers of Sky's Soccer Saturday and the realisation that the Arsenal Villa match is not actually the 4 PM game as I had thought, but a 1.30 PM kick-off. A quick check with Baxi and we were still on, but I had to be getting across London a touch earlier than originally planned. With that in mind, I kept my alcohol consumption down at Jo's uncle Pete's place and was up early on Sunday morning. Well, early for me.

Where I watched a Sunday Supplement full of journalists tipping Aston Villa to get a result at the Grove. Patrick Barclay, an eminently sensible man I think (at least he talks like one), said he expected Villa to win which left Martin Samuel as the voice of reason. Yes, that Martin Samuel, he had a good line though. His grandad apparently always used to say if you had a bet to save your life, you bet on the Arsenal at home. This all left me feeling, as I made my way across London, that Aston Villa were being a tad overrated and that Arsenal are still not being taken seriously.

Picking up an Observer at Waterloo, I came across a stat that I can't wait to show my grandad. A bit like David Platt's oft stated belief that Arsenal are not good enough to win the title, no matter what he may have just witnessed, my grandad tells me that Arsenal do not take enough shots from distance. Every time we talk. No matter that I cite the likes of Denilson, Arshavin, Cesc and Vermaelen as long-range scorers this season, I needed some cold hard facts. Luckily for me, yesterday's Observer had the stat; Arsenal have scored from outside the penalty area 12 times this season and that, my friends, is a leading tally in the Premier League. Of course, the tally has now risen by two courtesy of Abou Diaby's habitual goal against the Villa and a sublime free kick from Cesc Fabregas.

It is largely thanks to an exquisite cameo from the captain that I don't have to come and repeat the Tony Adams post of exactly one year ago, having watched Arsenal surrender a two goal advantage at Villa Park, but that shouldn't detract from the fact that even before Fabregas' divine intervention, the roles of Arsenal and Villa were largely reversed from one year ago. With Abou Diaby running the show yesterday afternoon, he's come into some good form hasn't he? - it seemed only a question of when, not if, Arsenal would score. But as long as the game continued scoreless, Villa's potential on the counter was always going to give Arsenal the willies.

In truth, Eduardo should have opened this game up early with a goal, but shot tamely at Friedel. It seems last week's miskick hasn't done much for his confidence and he was hugely ineffective again yesterday. Arshavin made Friedel make a good save, though we all agreed it was the kind of save a keeper should make and Gallas will wonder how he didn't score from practically on the goal line. In response Villa had? Well, nothing, really. They had a little 5-10 minute spell of causing panic in the penalty area in each half, but without really troubling Almunia- which really points to how powder puff they were as none of their forward players really showed.

Nonetheless, on the bench for emergency use only, with just over half an hour to play, the manager decided that his captain's time had come, he replaced Denilson. Unlike the fateful decision to send Thierry Henry on against PSV Eindhoven nearly three years ago, this decision paid off. Big time. With Fabregas adding urgency and, more importantly, craft to a dominant Arsenal display; the key to the lock of the Villa door was quickly found. Tripped by Richard Dunne, Fabregas won a free kick in a very similar position to the one Denilson had last week albeit down the other end of the pitch. I just had time to think, "Well, we hadn't scored one for two years up until last week, so you never know..." before Cesc comprehensively beat Brad Friedel into the top corner. If Cesc had been training this week, you might have thought he'd been getting some tips from Denilson.

Walcott on for Eduardo. And, with then minutes left, Walcott it was who provided the pass for the killer second goal. It was a beatiful counter attacking move; Millner presented the ball to Armand Traore in the left back position, who simply sent a crossfield pass out over the halfway line for Walcott to chase. The fastest player in the team was onto it and as he approached the penalty area, he angled a pass in for the onrushing Fabregas. If, for once, the pass was perfection, Fabregas's finish inside the near post complemented it beautifully.

Unfortunately, there were to be no repeat of the joyous scenes that followed the first goal as Cesc appeared to have aggravated the hamstring injury and was swiftly replaced by Aaron Ramsey, with his mission accomplished. Fingers, toes, feet, arms and eyes crossed that this season's top scorer returns to us soon because on this showing, there are few players who can match him.

No, not even Abou Diaby. Diaby it was, though, who put the cherry on some decidedly tasty cake in injury time; picking up the ball just inside the Villa half, strolling forward unchallenged before planting a little pearler into the far corner of Friedel's goal. I think I may have mentioned earlier that this was from outside the box?

Now, it's difficult to read too much into this comprehensive demolition job. After all we were written off as title challengers, and Chelsea hailed as the best side, like, in the history of the Premier League when they went 11 points clear of us all of a, a month ago and yet we sit just four points behind them with a game in hand this morning. So, things can change quickly. But I think Arsenal have shown that they are a better side than given credit for and Villa are, well actually, Villa are just a touch overrated. So, we move on, having opened a little gap between us and 4th spot and can look at closing the gap to the top with confidence. Portsmouth are next up though and, given their recent home form, this could prove to be a tricky little assignment. Especially if we are to be without both Cesc and, reports suggest, Denilson. After all, who will we have to score our free kicks?

Seriously though, with Nick Bendtner also not due back for a while yet, I do feel we are really missing his physical presence up top. I'm sure you've all read the Huntelaar on-loan rumours, he would certainly give us something different to the problems posed by our nimble set of ballerinas - I don't mean that horribly, but I do feel we will soon come unstuck again if this situation is not resolved in the near future. And yes, you can take that to mean I'd like a striker to come in!

In the meantime, let's enjoy the fact that it's a Monday morning most of us don't have to be at work on and, for once, we had a referee who didn't feel the need to book Alex Song the second he upended someone, or indeed for the fouls that followed the card he did inevitably receive later on. Nice to see a bit of the Christmas spirit extended to the football pitch, wasn't it?

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