Football News

ALMOST INVINCIBLE. Sounds like the title of an American action film remake, but for the purposes of the here and now, it is an appropriate moniker for an Arsenal favourite who will be cheering Mikel Arteta’s side to what he hopes will be their first Premier League title in 20 years.

Cesc Fabregas was the prodigious Catalan teenager who came through the Arsenal youth ranks, via Barcelona’s La Masia, to make his debut during the historic 2003-04 season.

‘He’s only just SIXTEEN, he’s better than Roy KEANE’ sang the adoring Highbury North Bank at the first sight of the new wonderkid on the block.

He left many a broken heart when he signed for Barcelona eight years later with ostensibly just an FA Cup winners’ medal and runners-up gongs from the League Cup and Champions League to show.

To manager Arsene Wenger, who treated him like the son he never had, and senior team-mates such as Thierry Henry, Patrick Vieira and Robert Pires, he was one of the Invincibles in all but name.

Two decades on, a touch thinner and greyer on top, but still supremely slim and fit, one of the greatest midfield players of his generation is smiling at the memory of that Keane ditty.

“Well, it's not fair to say that I won it in (the Invincibles season of) 2004, but I did feel part of it because I was with them every day. I was changing with them, I was training everyday with them. Arsene wanted me in there with the senior players.

"I played three League Cup games, I went to the Champions League as well, on the bench. So, did I feel part of it? Yes. Because I was involved in everything they did.

“And I want to believe that I did my part in the training sessions to try to raise the level in whatever part I could, making my name inside the team. Some of

Mikel Arteta Thierry Henry Patrick Vieira Roy Keane Arsene Wenger Robert Pires Cesc Fabregas Arsenal