Is Fabregas's attack on his Arsenal team-mates further evidence the skipper is heading for the exit?

By Martin Lipton in Laptop with Martin Lipton

Published 11:43 18/02/10

• 

If it is true that what you say in anger represents your deepest thoughts, then Cesc Fabregas is beginning the final chapter of his Arsenal story.

Fabregas' anguished reaction to Arsenal's Champions League defeat by Porto last night was as telling as any interview he has given since Barcelona stepped up their public courting.

As Arsenal skipper, Fabregas has a duty of care, a demand that he protects his team-mates even when they make the sort of errors to make you weep.

But while Fabregas believes Arsene Wenger's Gunners will progress to the last eight when Porto travel to the Emirates in three weeks' time, his instinctive response to what happened in the Estadio do Dragao was an insight into his soul.

"When you concede goals like that you can't go anywhere," said Fabregas. "They were schoolboy goals. What can you do? We've nothing to complain about.

"Until the second goal we were solid but after that we went down.

"We're still a little bit soft in that aspect as a team when we concede a goal. Sometimes we're not strong enough to lift ourselves and that's what happened. We're not strong enough to stand up and play well."

The words were far more serious than Wayne Rooney's criticism of the first half displays by Nani and Darren Fletcher in the San Siro.

This was a public dressing down of his own dressing room, an attack not just on the mistakes but the mentality of Wenger's squad.

There were underlying reasons, ones which Fabregas did not disclose.

Among the crowd in Oporto were 40 friends and family of the Arsenal skipper, who had made the trip from his home town of Arenys de Mar to see him.

Fabregas felt embarrassed at what they had witnessed, that he was a member of a team that could commit two such horrendous mistakes in the same match.

But the fact that Fabregas voiced his feelings so openly will cause major ramifications among the players he has under him.

Where Wenger, remarkably, blamed Swedish referee Martin Hansson, trying - in vain - to detach Lukasz Fabianski and Sol Campbell from the blame game, Fabregas had no such protective instincts.

That Wenger's stance is more than a little hypocritical is perhaps not a surprise, even if it shows there is nobody less consistent than a top flight football manager.

When Robert Pires scored from a quickly-taken free-kick at Aston Villa in January 2004, Wenger was not complaining.

Likewise, after Thierry Henry scored in similar circumstances to claim a draw with Jose Mourinho's Chelsea the following season, Wenger's response was: "I feel it is an intelligent exploitation of the rules. My understanding is that the referee asks the free-kick taker if he wants a wall or not."

Then again, we know that Wenger is, like most managers, utterly one-eyed.

His players, however, will have read Fabregas' accusatory words with a mixture of shame and resentment.

As a rule - the sort of rule Roy Keane would happily break with impunity until even he got too much for Sir Alex Ferguson - you do not criticise your team-mates, whatever you think of them.

Fabregas tore that rule up into little pieces as he climbed into his colleagues, signalling another fracture in his bond with the club.

Then again, you can understand Fabregas' feelings as he attempts to lead an army which has neither the troop numbers nor the weaponry required to win the biggest battles.

Fabianski's blunders - further evidence that Wenger has got it wrong about the Polish keeper - were proof of one of the obvious failings in Arsenal's recruitment policy.

So far this season, Wenger has turned to four different glovemen - Fabianski, Manuel Almunia, Vito Mannone and Wojciech Szczesny - without finding a proper goalkeeper between them.

When you add in Wenger's reluctance to spend on the striker the club is crying out for in the absence of Robin Van Persie, the fact that Campbell came out of self-imposed footballing exile to bolster the ranks and the reality that Arsenal look like a club that will never splash the cash while the current ownership model remains in charge, the charge sheet against the manager is growing.

Things can change. Certainly 12 straight league wins - probably enough to take the title with Chelsea and United likely to drop points here, there and everywhere - would alter the mood and Porto should not represent too much of a barrier in the second leg.

Fabregas' intemperate words, however, suggest he is edging closer and closer to the exit door. His patience, evidently, has run out. And it looks like he will next.

Fancy winning £3,000 for FREE this month? Play Mirror Football Streak for your chance to win cash prizes! Start predicting now!