But on a day which began with Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger stating in his morning press conference: “Nobody will be leaving Arsenal”, things were never going to run like clockwork.
The Spanish midfielder, 24, had originally been expected in Spain this weekend to commit to a five-year deal worth a cool £36million.

Strangely, although the North London club had given the green light for talks to go ahead, negotiations were still on-going when Barcelona stars began announcing news of the transfer being done on their twitter accounts.
Ex Manchester United defender Gerard Pique said “He’s finally here!” while captain Carles Puyol tweeted “welcome home” on Fabregas’ official Twitter account.

As the afternoon progressed however, it became clear that the Arsenal captain was still in London and would not sign in time to make his debut against Real Madrid in the Spanish Super Cup which takes place this Sunday.
Big mouth goalie Victor Valdes then spent much of a scheduled press conference talking about Cesc’s looming arrival rather than his club, angering boss Pep Guardiola who was mindful of upsetting the Londoners having just reached an agreement to sign him.

Cesc Fabregás would now probably travel to Spain after the weekend to finally sign on the dotted line.

Wenger, who’s in Portugal for a friendly match against Benfica tonight has revealed that the pre-season turbulance is taking its toll as he tries to keep his stars like Fabregás and Nasri and sign news ones to strengthen the squad.
The gunners landed in Portugal yesterday without key players such as Wilshere, Walcott, Fabregás or Nasri.

Wenger stated that all the players were injured with the exception of wantaway skipper Fabregás.
The Arsenal boss maintains that Cesc Fabregás is not on strike despite mystery surrounding the seriousness of his injury as he trained in London yesterday. Fabregás has yet to debut in a pre season game.

Midfielder Gervinho and defender Jenkinson remain Arsenal’s only new faces despite fans wanting to see more signings.
Wenger conceded his team cannot afford any more injuries and hopes to make a least one more signing next week.

“We have had some sleepless nights and we were working non-stop through the summer”.
“The injuries are making things difficult. The season starts next week and then we have a Champions League qualifier.

“We need to qualify and hopefully we won’t have any more injuries from the international matches. We could be hit hard if we lose any more.
“Cesc is not ready to start a game. He has joined the group again. The rest is speculation.

Asked if cynical fans believe Fabregás is injured, Wenger said: “He is not injured. He is coming back from injury and is not ready to play.
“I do not want to speak about the transfer about Fabregás. I love Fabregás and I want him to stay.”

“It is important that we be in the Champions League and it is crucial we give everything to get there” Wenger said.

Otherwise the wantaway Spanish midfield star will stay put at the gunners.

A Barcelona source said last night: “Arsenal FC have let it be known that unless a deal for Fabregás is sorted by the end of the month then he will stay in London.

“They said although they never wanted to sell their captain they were prepared to reluctantly accept Cesc’s request to come home to Barcelona.

“Arsenal have insisted they have been very fair to Fabregás and Barcelona and this situation is not healthy for neither and has to end.

“They are not prepared to wait much longer and after staying silent throughout the summer, they will issue a public statement to draw a line under this matter at the start of next month.

“We understand there is no way they will sell Fabregás for what we offered but the decision rests with Sandro Rossell, the Barca president.”

Fabregas, who is injured, sat out Arsenal’s trip to Asia, will have talks with Arsene Wenger today after the team’s return to London.

The Arsenal boss said Cesc is set to travel with them to Cologne for a friendly next Friday – and that will pile up the pressure on president Rossell to pay up the full asking price for the player.

Wenger said: “We will have to see how far Cesc is with his injury.

“Normally, yes I expect him to come to Cologne. He is not back in full training, he is back running on the pitch and the next step is to be back in full training. I will assess him on Monday.

“He is in my plans for the rest of pre-season. The problem is we face speculation from everywhere but my target is the same, to keep the players.”

Therefore, after weeks of what they see as insulting behaviour – like Barcelona midfielder Xavi’s statement last week that Cesc is ‘suffering’ at Arsenal – the North London club have said enough is enough.

The European champions have so far offered £31.6m which was instantly rejected by Arsenal for their star player and one of the world’s best midfielders.

If Arsenal were to put Cesc up for auction then Chelsea and Manchester City would certainly be prepared to raise the stakes to over £50m.

Wenger is fighting to convince Cesc Fabregás to stay at Arsenal and it looks increasingly likely Barcelona will miss out on him again, unless they are prepared this time to put their money where their mouth is.

Barcelona themselves have made no secret over their admiration for the midfielder but have been unable to meet Arsenal’s asking price.

Villa said: “As a player, everybody knows what Barcelona brings [for players].

“And as a person, he (Cesc Fabregas) deserves to return to Barcelona, his family is here and it is where he started.

“Having him would be a great joy and I’d be happy for him because he deserves it, and I’d be happy to have him as my team-mate.”

“I am not sure how many times I need to talk directly about my commitment to Arsenal as I continue to say the same thing over and over again,” he said. “It appears that every time I have spoken to the Spanish media recently, my words have bounced back to England, leaving question marks about my future. So, for anyone who is unclear or may have misunderstood what my position is, let me make myself absolutely crystal clear – I am whole- heartedly committed to Arsenal and my future lies with this great club.”

original source
Liverpool Echo

The Spain midfielder has revealed his anger at the lack of silverware in recent times for the North London outfit, throwing his future at Emirates Stadium into doubt.

And Fabregas, part of the Spain side stunned by the USA in the semi-finals of the Confederations Cup in South Africa, admitted Arsenal’s shortage of success was affecting team spirit.

“The absence of titles at Arsenal is what angers me the most,” he is quoted in The Sun.

Read more here at Skynews

And the France international full-back has claimed he could be ready to take off-field retribution against the Spain midfielder. Fabregas clashed with Evra during the 0-0 draw at Old Trafford which sealed the Red Devils’ third successive Premier League title triumph.

That meeting came just days after United saw off their top-flight rivals in the UEFA Champions League semi-final, after which Evra branded the Gunners ‘babies’. Former Monaco ace Evra is standing by his comments and insists there is no place on the field for challenges such as the one made by Fabregas.

Read the rest of this post here at Skysports

The Spanish international said: “We have to look at where we can improve, and make sure we do that for next season.

“We haven’t been in any Finals and perhaps that’s because of something. We’ve gone 21 games without losing in the league, so we know we are good, but when we’ve played in the Semi-Finals of the FA Cup and Champions League we haven’t been at the level everyone expected us to reach.

Read the full story here: Arsenal Mania

Arsene Wenger desperately needs to strengthen and yet the more people tell him that the more stubborn he gets and does quite the opposite.

They are not in big supply and are hard to come by, but Arsenal need a big, strong centre-back who is also a leader.

When William Gallas was stripped of the captaincy, Cesc Fabregas got the armband but that’s a pretty damning indictment of Arsenal’s squad.

There aren’t enough strong, forceful and vociferous leaders who set an example. And on a desperate European night, Arsenal were crying out for one.

Source: Mirror

United had scored 2 goals in the first 10 minutes after mistakes from Kieran Gibbs and Manuel Almunia, with Ronaldo capping off the perfect United performance with another goal in the second half.

Despite the early setbacks, Arsenal never really looked like scoring against a well-organised United defence over the two legs and keeper Edwin van der Sar was never really tested.

Wenger said: “The most disappointing thing tonight is that we don’t feel like we’ve played the Semi-Final of the Champions League because we were out of it after 10 minutes.

Read the full post here at: Arsenal Mania