FanPost

Season's Sanity: The Fabregas Edition

This was just yesterday, right? - Julian Finney

Hey. Hey! Hey everybody! Did you see that assist from Cesc Fabregas on the weekend? The one for Chelsea? Did you? Did you see it? Did you really see it? Lovely little cushion volley into open space that was correctly read and converted. Made Burnley look stupid. Unlocked the defense like he had the keys. Tore 'em a new one. It was lovely. Wonderful. Beautiful. Class. Positive descriptor. Did you see it?

Did you also hear that Wenger turned his return to Arsenal down? Turned him, Cesc Fabregas, down!! A player who could do that. What a pass. Arsenal could use that. And they turned him down!! Amazing!

Hi. I'm writing like this to annoy you. Because I'm annoyed and can foresee the topic at hand becoming ever more annoying as the season drags on. No, it's not praise of the lovely football Fabregas is capable of. No, it's not that he plays for Chelsea and not Arsenal. It's not even that Wenger chose not to buy him back for whatever price he would have cost. It's all of the above rolled into one all knowing statement that threatens to be mentioned every time Cesc does something good.

The prospect of this is vomit inducing. It's one thing to have an ex-player score on your team in a direct match up. I get that. It sucks but it "always" happens or "in the cards", so to speak. It's a narrative we are used to. But the very idea that in a different park, on a different day, against a different opponent we may be subjected to "what Fabregas did and how it affects Arsenal" is something I don't want to tolerate this season. They really have nothing to do with each other.

Firstly, Fabregas is a blue. Good for him. Don't like the team but he's got a job to do. Unless Arsenal plays Chelsea, the results really don't matter. Arsenal wins benefit Arsenal more than anything Chelsea does. Sure, if they lose a lot that's good but it's secondary. Fabregas' play is largely mutually exclusive from Arsenal. He doesn't play for Arsenal.

"But," you might say, "Wenger directly turned down signing him, so he could have!" Yes, that's true, and like many I also thought it an interesting prospect of bringing him back into the fold, if possible at a lower price than they were advertising him. But also at the time the name Alexis Sanchez wasn't on my lips and there were rumblings that the likes of Cazorla and/or Podolski were on the outs. But then he was and they weren't. With central attacking midfielder options such as Ozil, Cazorla, Ramsey and Wilshere to pick from, did spending up to £30 million make sense given Arsenal's needs? He might be better than all of them, but not that much to warrant buying him.

"But," you might say, "Arsenal struggled while Fabregas lead Chelsea on a breeze." I guess. Arsenal surely did not look very good against a stubborn, hard tackling, time-wasting and often cynical Crystal Palace that wanted the world to see the ghost of Pulis that still haunted them while Chelsea brushed aside the newly promoted bushy-tailed Burnley who might not have got the memo that staying up often meant kicking the big boys as much as you can and hoping. (Fouls were Burley 6 - 7 Chelsea compared to Arsenal 13 - 19 Crystal Palace.) Could Fabregas have altered the fates? I dunno, but both teams recorded wins so to what end do we make that call? Pundits might be gushing over Chelsea but it's been one game, therefore nothing to lose your head over. Maybe Chelsea does this all season; then we can have that discussion.

The point I am labourously making here is none of this matters (I'm an academic, we do it this way). We all have good memories of Fabregas doing his thing for Arsenal but that in itself is not enough to lament every thing he now does for Chelsea. The connections and endless jabber about "what could have been" don't add anything to season breakdowns, particularly this early. Nor does it portray the purchase of Fabregas for what it really was: unnecessary. We need not say "Arsenal" when we say "Fabregas" because the two have gone their separate ways. So for your sanity, I implore the faithful to let it be. Fabregas is a blue.