Tag Archives: Cesc Fàbregas

Chelsea Result, Refereeing Standard, Fabregas v Gibbs & Marcus Alonso

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Chelsea Result

2-2 was a fair result.

Both sides had their chances.

Both sides showed why they are so far behind Manchester City.

Personally I was non-pulsed about the result.

Some will say that the draw will mean that if Spurs win tonight, we are cut adrift in the race for the top 4 – 5 points behind Liverpool in 4th and 4 points behind Spurs in 5th, but I honestly do not care about top 4.

I would rather win trophies, then finish top 4 and celebrate the mythical Top 4 trophy.

Previously I have discussed about how opinions changed. From 2006 – 2013, Arsenal were heavily criticised for finishing top 4 but not winning trophies. Now we are criticised for winning trophies and not finishing top 4.

I would happily finish in 6th place if it means more silverware.

As I explained last night to a few people, in 1993, does anyone care that we finished 10th? Was it deemded an unsuccessful season for George Graham, finishing mid table but winning 2 trophies?

No it was not. So why now would it be seen as a failure if we finish 6th and win some silverware.

Ultimately football is about winning trophies.

It is more important to win the League Cup then finish 2nd in the league.

Refereeing Standard

Arsene Wenger has been charged by the FA for daring to criticise the decision of Mike Dean to award a non-existent penalty. It shows how arrogant the FA are that the man who gave an opinion that everyone agrees with is charged, whilst the man who made the mistake gets no punishment.

This season we have had a lot of decisions go against us.

The twitter above estimates that the decisions that have gone against us have cost 15 points. Last night was another game when a non-existent penalty was given, causing us to concede and equaliser.

When you look at Spurs, their offside goals, the dodgy penalties, the players making leg breaking challenges, not being sent off and then not having retrospective action against them, you can’t help but start to believe the conspiracy theories.

It might not be deliberate, but in the subconscious of referees, they see Spurs as the good guys of English football, the saviours, whilst we are the opposite.

I am not a fan of VAR. But as more and more obvious decisions go against us, I being leaning towards it.

It is an undeniable fact that refereeing decisions have cost us points this season. And Wenger is charged for pointing out the poor decisions.

Fabregas v Gibbs

2 days ago, I wrote a blog about how I was booing Kieran Gibbs. Just for a bit of a laugh, and for that blog I got hammered for – which was probably also justifiable.

I also note the lady in question who I was winding up also tweeted. Interesting how quick she went from people infront of me were booing to no one was booing infront of me. Cowardness.

Just to clarify a point, some people decided to pick up on a single point of that blog, that I was saying if you are not from Islington, you are not a real fan. Clearly I was not saying this, and it just shows that there are some people out their with an agenda against me who decided to twist what I was saying to just criticise.

Also interesting was a lad from Australia who said my blog was racist. Odd little blog, probably never been to a game, you are the fan I despise. Why not support a team in Melbourne? A local team. Back them?

Anyway, I digressed a little. Sorry about that.

Yesterday fans cheered and clapped Cesc Fabregas.

So I get criticised for booing a former player, and probably some of them same fans then cheers Fabregas.

Yes, Cesc was a former player, and former captain – and the best young player I have watched – but he turned into a petulant little twat who refused to play for us and decided to go to the Spanish Grand Prix rather than have the decency to turn up to the last game of the season and thank the fans for their support.

He does not deserve our applause. A club with fans with more balls would have booed his every touch. But our newer fan base, the middle class happy clappy post-Euro 96 fans simply have no idea.

If you applauded Fabregas yesterday, you are a bit of a mug.

Marcus Alonso

No amount of goals will make up for the fact that you killed a girl going 70 mph in a 30mph zone whilst drunk.

Scumbag.

Keenos

Mesut Ozil vs The World

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Further to this mornings article about Mesut Ozil, I thought I would run some figures.

A lot of people moan that Ozil does not do enough, and it got me thinking. In terms of goals and assists, how does Mesut Ozil compare to other Premier League number 10’s. So I did a little comparison with Ozil and players who perform a similar role to him (ie the likes of Eden Hazard and Alexis Sanchez were excluded as they are very different players).

I came up with a list of 9 players, including Ozil, that you would probably see as similar players. I am sure at this point some will criticise me, both for excluding certain players and including certain players. I do not really care. If you want to add any players, do your own research, and add the players stats in the figures.

My 9 Number 10’s are:

Cesc Fabregas
Coutinho
Cristian Erickson
David Silva
Dele Alli
Henrikh Mkhitaryan
Juan Mata
Kevin de Bruyne
Mesut Ozil

I have used Premier League statistics at their current club only.

An argument about Ozil is that he does not score enough. He is 6th on the list, so it is a justifiable argument, but I do not hear people moaning that Cesc, Mkhitaryan or David Silva do not score enough. And he is not too much behind Kevin de Bruyne. Even Cristian Erickson, a player known for being a goal scoring midfielder, scores his goals exactly one game quicker than Ozil.

To put that into perspective, based on their ratios, Erickson would score 8 goals a season (if he played 38 games), whilst Ozil would score 7. Dele Alli’s games to goals is terrific.

Bit of a surprise that Ozil did not top this one, as he is known as an assist king. I was also surprised about how far ahead Kevin de Bruyne is from the rest.

Two of the 3 above Ozil for assists are below him for goals. In fact, bar Henrikh Mkhitaryan, there is a clear correlation on the list, the more goals you score, the less assists you make, and vice versa. Someone like Coutinho scores a lot, but does not provide too much. He always takes the shot. Whilst someone like Fabregas always makes the pass rather than the shot.

It is perhaps therefore import to combine the two. Goals and assists.

Kevin de Bruyne is clearly the most effective Number 10 around at the moment. He scores goals and gets assists. He is an awesome player. He cost £59.7million.

Thinking out loud here, de Bruyne is 25% more effective than Mesut Ozil when it comes to goals and assists, and he cost 25% more. You get for what you pay for I guess.

I was surprised to see the two Tottenham players, Erickson and Alli, 2nd and third on the list. Both players also cost a lot less than every other player on the list. Have to wonder how long they will stay at Spurs for, winning nothing.

4th on the list is Mesut Ozil. He averages a goal or an assist every 2 games.

Ozil is more effective than the likes of David Silva, Cesc Fabregas, Coutinho and Juan Mata. Often labelled as a waste of money, that he has been a £42.5m flop, what about these players?

Barcelona were willing to spend £100m on Coutinho, yet Ozil outperforms him. Where is the criticism for these players?

So before you get on your high horse and moan about what he delivers and his cost, understand that he performs better than a lot of players, who cost a similar amount. Everything is relative.

As a final thought, if I asked you, who would you prefer: Ozil, Cesc, Silva or Coutinho, I bet Ozil would come bottom, yet he out performs all of these. Time for a poll:

Keenos

Time for Arsenal to re-sign former star?

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In 2014 Arsene Wenger got the call. Cesc Fabregas is leaving Barcelona. Do Arsenal want him?

When sold their captain back to his home town club in acrimonious circumstances back in 2011, the club had the foresight to insert a first option buy back clause in the deal, ensuring that if Fabregas ever left Barcelona, Arsenal would have an offer accepted on him.

Whilst at Barcelona, reports are that Arsene Wenger remained in fairly frequent contact with Fabregas. It was an estranged father / son relationship. The door clearly always open for the return of one of the best players Arsenal have had in the last 15 years. But when the time came for Fabregas to leave, Wenger’s phone stopped getting answered to the Fabregas camp. The door was shut. The deal not going to happen.

You could argue it is one of the biggest mistakes of recent years by Arsene Wenger, as Fabregas went to join Chelsea, and win 2 Premier League titles, acting as a driving force in both.

It is very easy now, in 2017, to point and laugh at the mistake. Football in hindsight is a wonderful thing. We see that on Match of the Day as pundits pick apart every tactical and positional position made by players and managers that result in a defeat. It is easy to pick holes in something 5 hours after the event. If these pundits were brilliant as they pretend to make out, they would be top level managers, not sitting on a sofa late on a Saturday night discussing what has happened in games. Hindsight.

So to be fair to everyone involved in the deal, we need to go back to the summer of 2014. David Cameron was Prime Minister, the UK was still in the EU, Jeremy Corbyn was a back bench MP, Ellie Goulding was at number one with Beating Heart and we were a week away from the release of Transformers: Age of Extinction. Spurs had not won a trophy for a long time, the league even longer. Arsenal had just won the FA Cup.

For me, the Cesc Fabregas deal did not die in the summer of 2014, but the previous summer. The summer of the £1 Luis Suarez bid.

In 2013, Arsenal needed a marquee signing, a superstar striker. They went for Luis Suarez, bid above his contracted minimum release clause, and the deal should have gone through. Liverpool held their ground, and basically said to Suarez “take us to court for breach of contract”. It would have been a long, drawn out process, a court case that would have taken years. Instead of taking Liverpool to court, Suarez signed a new, better paid deal, with the agreement that he could leave abroad the next season. Ironically he ended up at Barcelona in 2014, with the Catalonians having to sell Fabregas to finance the deal.

Had the Suarez deal have gone through, I am adamant that the next season, if Fabregas was available, he would have returned to Arsenal. Fabregas playing behind Suarez. It would have driven Arsenal to the Premier League title. But as soon as the Suarez deal died, Arsenal had to explore other options. With very few top quality strikers on the market, Arsenal made a last ditch move for Real Madrid’s Mesut Ozil in a £42.5m deal. Arsenal had arguably secured the best number 10 in the world.

Roll on a year to 2014. The year Fabregas came available. Mesut Ozil had driving Arsenal to their first trophy in 9 years. A successful first season. Fabregas came on the market. He wanted Arsenal, but he found that Arsenal no longer had space for him. With Ozil in his position, there was simply not the space for Cesc Fabregas as a number 10.

Ozil was 18 months younger and clearly a superior player. There would be no way Arsenal would even look into offloading the German after a single season to replace with an older, more injury prone, Cesc Fabregas – who lets not forget basically went on strike to force a move away from Arsenal.

Instead of Fabregas, Arsene Wenger decided on another Barcelona outcast. Alexis Sanchez.

When the Suarez deal fell through, it was clear what Arsene Wenger wanted upfront. A battler. Someone with pace, but who would chase down lost causes, would battle for the team, would be the spearhead. Alexis Sanchez was the man. In came Sanchez, to partner Ozil, and Fabregas eventually went to Chelsea.

It is an interesting conundrum. With Suarez, Arsenal would not have signed Ozil, without Ozil, Arsenal would have signed Cesc Fabregas, without Suarez Arsenal signed Alexis Sanchez.

In his first season at Chelsea, Fabregas won the Premier League. In the 2nd season, he showed his petulant side, alongside Diego Costa and Eden Hazard, they basically stopped performing for Jose Mourinho. This season he has returned to his former brilliant best as Chelsea look to romp home with the title by double points more than their nearest rivals.

But has Fabregas actually performed that well this season?

When I have seen him, he has been excellent. But he has only started 11 league games this season.

He begun the season in a midfield two, where he was horribly exposed for his inability to get around the field. His legs had gone. Very good on the ball, but he had zero defensive awareness and was simply unable to cover as much ground as he used too when at Arsenal. Injuries had taken their toll.

His poor performances in the midfield 2 this season (and previous) have actually justified Arsene Wenger not signing him. With Mesut Ozil in the squad, Fabregas would have had to have played deeper, but he clearly does not have the attributes to play their at 30 years old. So his only role can be as a Number 10.

At Chelsea, he has found himself behind Eden Hazard and Pedro, playing behind Diego Costa. Willing runner Willian also often gets in the side ahead of him. It is this lack of game time that has led Fabregas to seek a new club this summer.

So should Arsenal make amends for what is a potentially clear mistake back in 2014 and re-sign Cesc Fabregas?

I am not sure.

He is now 30 years old and clearly still has his petulant streak and poor attitude. As Arsenal move forward to a 3-4-2-1 formation, he would clearly be unable to play as part of a two man midfield. He simply is not mobile enough.

Could Arsenal line up with Fabregas and Ozil behind Alexis Sanchez? This would be fairly exciting and a way to accommodate both Fabregas and Ozil. But it would also make us one dimensional. 2 excellent passers behind the striker, rather than a passer and a runner. Would it give us the most balance?

If Ozil stays, and we move Sanchez upfront, I would actually prefer a move for someone like Isco over Fabregas.

Isco is 5 years Fabregas’s junior and does not have his poor injury record. He might not be as good a passer, but he is much better driving forward with the ball. His ability to drop into a wide position is also essential in the 3-4-2-1 formation when the two attacking midfielders are expected to assist on the wings. Isco would simply be more suited.

There are reasons why Fabregas has started just 11 games for Chelsea this season. His immobility to play in a , and his inability to perform in a wider position when required too. Pedro and Hazard, like Ozil and Sanchez, or Isco, have this ability. These lack of attributes would not suddenly appear if he rejoined Arsenal.

What does need to be chucked into the mixer, however, is the future of Mesut Ozil.

If the German does go, it does leave us short of players who can make a game breaking pass. At that point, Arsenal should seriously consider the return of Cesc Fabregas, as there are still few better than him at spotting and executing an assist.

It is the same conundrum as Arsenal and Arsene Wenger faced in 2014. Can Arsenal accommodate Cesc Fabregas with Mesut Ozil in the side?

It is still a no from me.

Whether you would have Fabregas over Ozil is another debate.

Keenos