Chelsea midfielder Cesc Fabregas is a class act who put good of the team ahead of personal glory

Tony Evans7 January 2019

In many respects, Cesc Fabregas was a player who found himself in the wrong place at the wrong time throughout his career. It says a lot about his ability and appetite that he enjoyed such success.

The 31-year-old played his final game for Chelsea in Saturday’s 2-0 FA Cup win over Nottingham Forest and left the pitch in tears to resounding applause. A move to Monaco makes sense but he will be recalled fondly at Stamford Bridge. Even now, though, he is most closely associated with Arsenal, a club he left eight years ago.

The Catalan arrived in north London from Barcelona’s La Masia finishing school at the age of 16 at the height of a golden era for the Gunners. His first season in England coincided with the Invincibles campaign and Arsene Wenger was the ascendant figure in the Premier League. No one imagined that this was the high water mark.

The cost of relocation from Highbury to the Emirates meant Arsenal failed to replace their fading stars adequately. Wenger built his new side around Fabregas but most of the supporting cast were not quite up to the required standard.

It was easy to delight in Fabregas’s touch, passing, intelligent movement and ability to wriggle out of tight spaces but Arsenal were found wanting when pitched against big-spending Chelsea and a resurgent Manchester United.

There was, too, a touch of entitlement and hubris around the Emirates that infected even the best of Wenger’s players. On another FA Cup weekend 12 years ago, Fabregas berated Mark Hughes after Blackburn had ground out a 0-0 draw away from home. He sarcastically asked the Blackburn boss whether he had actually played for Barcelona because Rovers played a style of football that would be considered unacceptable at the Nou Camp.

It seemed to irritate Wenger and his team when they were challenged by less talented opposition in what was becoming an increasingly physical division. Arsenal were a side that thought they were better than they were: only Fabregas and Robin van Persie were anywhere near good enough to win titles in the waning years of the 2000s.

As Fabregas matured, he became an increasingly vocal dressing-room presence and saw the flaws in Wenger’s methods. A parting of the ways became inevitable but the Nou Camp was a much more competitive environment than north London. The former Arsenal talisman was asked to change his game and shift positions to accommodate the likes of Xavi, Sergio Busquets and Andres Iniesta. As with Spain, with whom Fabregas won Euro 2008 and 2012 as well as the 2010 World Cup, he was asked to subvert his natural game for the good of the team.

In Pictures | Chelsea vs Nottingham Forest | 05/01/2019

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Chelsea never seemed quite the right fit for him. He worked under three managers — Jose Mourinho, Antonio Conte and Maurizio Sarri — who craved workrate, not flair. Yet, the past five years at Stamford Bridge became, in terms of trophies, the most successful period of his club career.

He gave the team balance and options at times when they looked like running out of ideas. His mobility was waning but the brain never stopped working. He often produced a masterclass of understated style and his experience and gamecraft more than made up for his deficiencies in tracking back.

Sealed with a kiss: Cesc Fabregas with the Premier League trophy in 2015
Chelsea FC via Getty Images

Memory plays tricks. It is easiest to recollect Fabregas in red and white on a sunny day at the Emirates, dominating play as the team’s leader. Yet, his finest work came as a team player: a false nine for Spain in the Euro 2012 Final; adapting to different roles at the Nou Camp; and confounding suspicious managers at Chelsea. He should be remembered as a truly class act.

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