Cesc Fabregas blinked back on our fantasy radars this weekend with a typically inspirational performance in Arsenal’s 2-0 win over City. The midfielder chirped up with a couple of assists, prompting many fantasy managers to consider the Spaniard as a worthy differential for the final run-in.
The question is, in a season where Fabregas has stuttered with injuries and disappointing fantasy returns, can he provide the spark for Arsenal and our fantasy lineups?…
Fabregas has just a single goal from his 16 league appearances so far this term, a stark contrast to his 7 goals in 32 appearances last season. More surprising is that the Spaniard, so often the playmaker for the Gunners, weighed in with a massive 20 assists last season but has so far notched just 6 assists. So what’s behind this statistical slump?
In a nutshell, Fabregas has been dropping deeper. Whether it’s due to the absence of a Flamini alongside him, or a conscious decision to change his style of play; there’s no denying that Fabregas has all too often dropped back to start Arsenal’s play, rather than find himself at the sharp end to finish it off or provide the killer pass.
That appeared to change last weekend against City. Fabregas came out of it with both assists for Adebayor’s goals – one a trademark free-kick delivery, the other a delightful chip into the strikers path, delivered from the edge of the box. That’s the area of the pitch that Fabregas has rarely ventured into this season – preferring instead to hang back and let Denilson do the foraging up field, or the likes of Nasri to cut inside and provide the creative spark.
The key factor here is that, against City, Fabregas was employed in front of two central midfield protectors in Song and Denilson. That allowed him to push up with Adebayor in a 4-5-1. That formation and policy with Fabregas, seems very unlikely to continue.
This chalkboard, displaying passes made by Fabregas against City and against Wigan in December, his last full appearance at the Emirates, highlights just how far up the pitch Fabregas was playing in contrast to his previous role in an Arsenal 4-4-2. With Van Persie, Eduardo and Arshavin all options to play off the main striker (Adebayor/Bendtner), it seems unlikely that Fabregas will find himself up playing in the same role as the weekend, or in the near future.
We can summise that Fabregas will shift back alongside Denilson or Song against Villarreal tonight and for league games going forward. Whether that will restrict his return of goals and assists over the remaining 7 games remains to be seen but tonight’s game should at least offer some clues.
Arsenal look set to enjoy a strong end to the season and Fabregas will doubtless make a big contribution to this. However, my bet is that we’ll see him retreat once again, provide plenty of prompting from deep and quality set-piece delivery but struggle to bring in big returns. Add to this the fact that the Gunners face Liverpool, United and Chelsea in those 7 games and I just think that returns from Fabregas will fail to justify the outlay.