El Mundo Sports

Arsenal Captain, Cesc Fabregas, is widely considered the engine that makes the Gunners’ run. His ability to keep the ball, and make the deft, defense splitting pass is uncanny. There just simply aren’t many footballers in the world with his combination of skills, footwork, unselfishness, and leadership. But how important is he to the success of one of the most flamboyant teams in the English premier league to watch?

It’s an important question that could have been answered on Tuesday, as Arsenal took on FC Porto in a Champions League clash to see who would moves on to the quarterfinals. With Fabregas’ command of the midfield out of the lineup, the soccer world got an opportunity to see how good this team really was.

They didn’t disappoint.

Nicklas Bendtner will get all of the accolades for his hat trick, but he wasn’t the star of the show. In fact there wasn’t one. Andrei Arsharvin, Samir Nasri, Alexandre Song, and Abou Diaby controlled the midfield, basically gifting Bendtner his three goals. One thing was evident in the Gunners’ squad. Their ability to control the ball with precision passing and world class dribbling was the difference. Arsharvin showed amazing ball control, as he weaved through the Porto defense, assisting on Bendtner’s second goal. Nasri took it upon himself to dribble through three Porto defenders and slam the ball past the helpless goalkeeper for Arsenal’s third. It was truly a world class goal, and a highlight reel moment. Song and Diaby played scrappy in defensive midfield roles, not allowing Porto to build an attack. The defense was also dominate.

So, that begs the question of whether or Cesc Fabregas is really that important to this team. Unfortunately, Porto was an inferior opponent on this day and probably not the best gage. Arsenal coach Arsene Wenger has to be happy that his team can play without Fabregas and still control the midfield. Problem is that I’m sure Barcelona was watching, and they also know that Arsenal can play withouth Fabregas. So, that brings up an even more important question.

How long will Fabregas be a Gunner now?

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This entry was posted on 9 March 2010 at 11:11 PM and is filed under Football (Soccer). You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.