Why Cesc Fabregas Is Set to Become a World-Beater Under Tata Martino

It's been a good start to the season for Barcelona, maintaining a 100 percent record through the first four league fixtures and boasting a remarkable plus-10 goal difference.

New manager Gerardo Martino has his first trophy, the Supercopa de Espana, under his belt, opened his account with a 7-0 home win, restored the pressing mantra and integrated Neymar—bar a few discernible niggles.

Fantastic work by anyone's standards, but Tata's single biggest achievement thus far has been unlocking the star potential in Cesc Fabregas—the potential that convinced Barca to fork out more than £25 million for him in 2011.

He started and starred in the rollicking of Levante at Camp Nou, providing two assists on paper but in effect claiming a hand in six of the goals.

Lionel Messi's injury tweak meant Cesc was slated to start up front against Malaga, and while his performance was far from the standard his Argentine colleague sets, it was significantly less limp than against the likes of Milan last season.

Moving back into a central midfield berth against Valencia, he bossed the game in the early stages, supplying two more assists and asserting control over the tempo and territory.

Messi took the plaudits at La Rosaleda after a sublime hat-trick, but in truth he could have had six or played Neymar in for three; the flawless performance came from the No. 4 shirt.

It speaks volumes of the La Masia product's progress when, upon finding out he was omitting from the starting XI against Sevilla, grumbles from the fans started to surface. He came on for the final 10 minutes and looked fantastic, spraying the ball around in deep areas, finding vertical passes and running the channels both left and right.

Although Barca don't strictly play with a No. 10 given their base 4-3-3 formation, Cesc is showing clear signs of developing into one of the very finest attacking midfielders the game has to offer.

He looks at home in the system, at home in the shirt and is now fully able to fulfill the role either Xavi or Andres Iniesta play—such is his well-rounded, technical and physical game. Now a menace on the edge of the opposition's box and not a passenger, defences are going to find it extremely tough to stop him finding one of Messi or Neymar with a killer ball.

His "verticality" is a valued commodity in Martino's tactical and systematical thorough process, as the former Newell's coach holds similar principles to Marcelo Bielsa.

The embers of Cesc's rise began under Tito Vilanova, but Tata is set to complete the project and hone the Spaniard into an unstoppable force.

The question is no longer whether Cesc will settle—he will—but whether or not Xavi's role is set to seriously diminish given the rise of a new world-beater in Catalonia.

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