The Absence of Cesc Fabregas: A Blessing in Disguise for Arsenal?

It was the 82nd minute. The score line was 1-0 at the Emirates. Manuel Almunia was standing in goal wearing the captain’s armband. Denilson and Diaby were anchoring the midfield. Cesc Fabregas wasn’t anywhere to be seen.

Arsenal were winning after drawing three consecutive matches. It wasn’t pretty but former disgraced captain Gallas’ header won the match for Arsenal. From my point of view, it was an excellent header. For once, the pundits should focus on Gallas’ goal rather than James’ error.

Arsenal did not play beautiful free-flowing football. They won because they fought till the very last second of the match. They made mistakes, but they didn’t give up. This never-say-die attitude wasn’t visible in Arsenal players previously. It was clearly visible yesterday. Last week, against Villa, they conceded into injury time. This time they held on to win and did so confidently.

Without Captain Fabregas, the players know, Arsene Wenger knows and the fans know that things are going to be harder. They sometimes lack creativity in midfield without him and both matches without Fabregas were proof of it.

Suddenly, in Fabregas’ absence, Denilson who has been criticized as of late is doing better. He performed superbly against Portsmouth.  Some say he is overshadowed by Fabregas. Well then, now is his time to show what he can do.

Then comes Nicklas Bendtner. He has been heavily criticized in recent weeks, but he came into life in Arsenal’s last match. Even the usually-leaky defence did well. Gallas and Silvestre did enough to stop Portsmouth from scoring and so did Sagna.

When Arsenal went down to ten men in the match against Liverpool, they played better than they had been playing prior to the sending off in the second half. Very significantly, Cesc was also missing in the second half due to injury.

Sometimes you need you main team player to be missing. Fabregas is known as “Mr. Arsenal.” Arsenal do rely heavily on Fabregas even though they can do without him. Arsenal are learning to cope without Fabregas. He was missing in the first few matches of the season and Arsenal did alright.

My article may be coming rather prematurely as only two matches have been played without him. However, Arsenal are in the top four. Villa will be playing on Tuesday, and  until they play, the Gunners will remain fourth. Arsenal might still be able to make it to the title or at least challenge for it.

Sometimes to win, you don’t have to play well. Aston Villa is an example of this. In their match against West Ham, the Hammers were the better team but Villa got the three points. Whether you play beautiful football and win or just win ugly, you will get three points.

Come April, Arsenal might be in a better or a worse position. At the moment however, the absence of Fabregas is indeed looking like a blessing.