Indeed, this has brought them crashing back down. They seem to think they're gonna be up there next season but I can't see it myself, they have too many areas that need strengthening.

Agreed. The FA Cup win will feel like progress but the Gooners are not competing in the top end of the transfer market and not developing youth in enough numbers or quality. To an outsider, Wenger appears to impede progress.

Agreed. The FA Cup win will feel like progress but the Gooners are not competing in the top end of the transfer market and not developing youth in enough numbers or quality. To an outsider, Wenger appears to impede progress.

They make me laugh when they go on about that cup win like it makes them title contenders (even funnier was Walcott saying they're ready to dominate English football again when they have never dominated) but they only edged out a lower league table side to win it. Also to get there they were lucky to best both Liverpool & Everton and who can forget the lucky way they got passed Championship side Wigan. They're very much a delusional bunch.

Really surprised by Barca slating Cesc on their website. Hes something of a boyhood hero for them and they're ripping into him.

Anyone else concerned by his second half of the season form?

Not really, he wasn't been played in a system that suited him or in his correct position.

This is so exciting :D it will be strange having him here but absolutely brilliant!!! Going to be a hard choice as to which shirt i get, costa or cesc.. ;)

May I suggest a TERRY home shirt and a CAHILL away shirt.

Highly amusing how the Gooners actually believe their own lies and fantasies. 

Will he and Jose have make up Cesc?

 

Cescxual healing

 

 

etc

 

Oh, and Arsenal turned him down. Fantastic meltdown by the Gooners

It's amazing that in today's market David Lulz is worth £20mil more than Cesc.

Cesc + Costa = Luiz + £10 mil.

If we can sign a dedicated LB and offload a couple of peripheral players we are really set next season.

now some people really pissing me off. what is the link between fabrepass and mata. these rival fans are so very angered at this club's progress that they look for every way to console themselves with funny accusations of the club's activities. where was mata when fabregas was playing in world's most difficult league anchoring arsenal's tiki taka football.

even with king Thierry Henry, we recall, this guy was the main man who the team was built around.

where was mata when fabregas developed and started scoring long range bullet shots about 4 seasons ago. when mata finally started coming up for Valencia, was he not that winger who ran and ran to deliver stewart downing's trademark type of crosses? and even when when he joined chelsea, were those not our biggest mediocre seasons in a decade now?

when mata was with us, fabregas was with Barcelona, so no single relationship, not even one.

think we finally need to be glad that we've got our darling deep-lying playmaker guys. what ever any rival fan says, their business.

cheers mates.

Edited June 12, 201412 yr by hephzibah

What didn't feel right a few weeks ago now seems obvious......definitely hats in the air.....

Football fans a fickle, if Cesc cements himself in central midfield and provides that additional spark of creativity we have lacked since Lamps started aging - all will be forgotten in a matter of months. 

 

Player's aren't supposed to be experts at PR, so I don't usually follow what they say to the media too closely. 

If nothing else i'm just happy that gooner fans are even more pissed off at us now and especially that twat piers morgan.

Nothing like dragging up a good quote from the past

 

Arsenal captain Cesc Fabregas: I will never sign for another English club like Fernando Torres - via @Telegraphhttp://t.co/wNhTABDbU1

 

oh well guess he had a memory lapse...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=440qkxGopjc]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=440qkxGopjc

As mentioned, the reaction from certain parts of London is worth the price of admission alone. 

 

Don't know what I love about Mourinho being back more, the way he has gotten this team back into shape or the fact that every transfer window we've had since his return we've had an absolute gas pulling one over a less than loved rival hahahhaha

https://www.facebook.com/cescfabregas/posts/682126895175657

Nice that he posted that, think it is time we returned to more of a 4-3-3 with Cesc signed. Build the midfield around him as we once did with Lamps.

 

For most games that 3 can be Cesc, Oscar and Matic (assuming no other CM is signed) for certain games Ramires in place of Oscar might prove needed.

 

Great signing, hope Costa is sorted soon. Sounds like him and Luis might be close to be done.

I've been up all day and haven't been on the computer or seen the news, what a shock to come on and see this, jesus christ.

Apologies for the triple post, but watching a video compilation of all his 102 assists for Arsenal, I noticed that a lot of them came from set pieces, we may finally have someone who can put in a decent corner/indirect free kick, that alone will be worth 10 goals a season at least with JT/Cahill/Ivanovic/Costa/Matic on the field.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yDDZ4s3DKog

 

^ The video if you can stomach watching 102 Arsenal goals. The fact the majority of them are scored by Van Persie and Adebayor helps though.

Edited June 13, 201412 yr by Jonty

Sooooo did we just buy a new summer striker?! No more costa!!!!!!!! Hahahhahahahahha Jk. But seriously he could start ahead of Torres

I'm not sure what's mellowed me more- the tears and bitterness from Arsenal fans or someone pointing out that we essentially have traded Mata and De Bruyne for Fabregas and Matic with a profit to boot.

Robbed from The Times again:

So much for Chelsea’s quiet summer. Instead of adding a proven goalscorer to a squad that has just challenged strongly for the Premier League and Champions League, which was José Mourinho’s public claim at the end of last season, the Portuguese is busily reshaping the spine of his side.

Cesc Fàbregas is the first arrival, having completed his £29.5 million move from Barcelona yesterday, but there will be plenty more. Thibaut Courtois will return from three years on loan at Atlético Madrid and is expected to displace Petr Cech after ten years as Chelsea’s first-choice goalkeeper, Diego Costa has already completed a medical and will sign for £32 million as soon as Atlético have secured another striker.

Mourinho remains in the market for a centre back to replace David Luiz, with Raphaël Varane and Eliaquim Mangala, the Frenchmen, his targets.

Throw in the expected signings of Filipe Luís to replace Ashley Cole and Tiago to bolster the midfield, and this summer will be Chelsea’s most frenzied in the transfer market since Roman Abramovich’s original takeover of the club 11 years ago.

Fàbregas’s signing is indicative of the new culture of pragmatism that has taken hold at Chelsea rather than Abramovich’s continuing desire to ape Barcelona, however, as the Spaniard was not even on their radar a few weeks ago.

Chelsea had spent considerable time and resources attempting to prize Koke, who at 22 is five years younger than Fàbregas, away from Atlético, but when Barcelona made it clear in the most public manner that Fàbregas was for sale last week Chelsea switched targets. A straight £27 million bid was tabled last Friday, as reported in The Times, and when Chelsea agreed to a further £2.5 million in add-ons and offered Fàbregas wages of £150,000 a week the deal was completed.

Given Barcelona’s desire to offload Fàbregas quickly— to fund the purchase of Koke ironically — Chelsea soon came to the conclusion that the deal on the table from Barcelona was too good to refuse, particularly given the player’s desire to sign in the light of the limited interest from elsewhere in the Premier League. Arsenal politely rejected the opportunity to exercise their option a fortnight ago and neither Manchester United or Manchester City made firm inquiries.

For Fàbregas, Chelsea is also a pragmatic choice as he came close to admitting yesterday. The 27-year-old has previous with Mourinho, whom he has repeatedly criticised and instructed to “shut up” as recently as this season, but the pair share a fierce winning mentality and work ethic that is likely to make them formidable allies.

“I firmly believe Chelsea is the best choice,” Fàbregas said. “They match my footballing ambitions with their hunger and desire to win trophies. They have an amazing squad of players and an incredible manager. I have unfinished business in the Premier League.”

Mourinho does have some reservations about

Fàbregas’s lack of pace and dynamism, but believes such shortcomings can be offset by his commitment and intelligence, and regards his versatility as potentially invaluable. The initial plan is for Fàbregas to start alongside Nemanja Matic as one of two holding midfield players to take advantage of his impressive range of passing, which the Serb lacks, but he can also operate as an alternative to Oscar.

Fàbregas’s ability to play out wide will also give Chelsea the option to switch to a 4-3-3 formation, which they are likely to do more regularly, particularly away from home.

So we are bring C'escy back, only one tune to sing next season, featuring the other JT.

Sexy back - Justin Timberlake (LYRICS) Main versi…: http://youtu.be/snyzX14JkHM

Robbed from The Times again:

 

 

Blimey what's this bit all about?

 

"Fàbregas’s lack of pace and dynamism, but believes such shortcomings can be offset by his commitment and intelligence, and regards his versatility as potentially invaluable. The initial plan is for Fàbregas to start alongside Nemanja Matic as one of two holding midfield players to take advantage of his impressive range of passing, which the Serb lacks, but he can also operate as an alternative to Oscar. "

 

Matic lacks impressive passing? Did they watch him after he signed?

 

 

As for Fabregas lacking pace, I wouldn't exactly say he's a slouch and I'm not sure rapid pace is an asset you would associate with many good central midfield players. 

Yeah facts are annoying when you have a stereotype that needs shoehorning into.

A man who was just once a curious boy, hypnotised by perfect harmony and the man in the middle..The conductor. He, who creates balance from chaos, beauty from turmoil, elegance from disarray.
No one really knows what happened that day, but he was never the same. And he never forgot the man in the middle
Now, this boy has grown up and he's as elegant with the ball as a conductor with his baton, a pure player with feet tethered to the pitch like strings on a violin, the master of control, a roaming midfielder with an instinctive feel for the ball who advances man like a conductor moves music, orchestrating the game with the right rhythm and tempo, creating something out of nothing, with just a look and a perfect one touch pass, ending the match with a crescendo and a bow

Every team needs the maestro