Eight more years of The Cesc 20 October, 2006

Francesc Fabregas signed an 8 year deal with Arsenal yesterday after negotiations for some time. He is one of the exiting young players at the club and is already a regular starter at only 19, I can’t dream of what he’ll be like at his peak but we’re the ones who’s gonna find out. Here’s what Cesc had to say on the new deal:

Cesc Fabregas:

“I am so happy here and I am delighted to have signed this new contract that will keep me at the Club for years to come. I wanted to pay back the Club, especially Arsène Wenger for the support and faith he has shown in me. What is important now is for the team to realise its potential and win trophies. That is our main aim, that is my aim as well.”

Hopefully he’ll win lots of trophies in the next eight years and I reckon he’ll lift a few of them as captain one day. He’s a great player with so much ambition and amazing talent; this is fantastic news for the club.

Phil Senderos will be available for the Reading game this weekend which is another a great bit of news. It’s very unlikely that he’ll start but he could make a substitute appearance after his long-term shoulder injury picked up at the world cup. It won’t be easy for him to get in the squad now though like last season. Now I’d say the centre two are Gallas and Toure with Phil and Djourou fighting it out for that place on the bench. Djourou has grown from strength to strength and is giving Arsene Wenger a nice problem for who he should pick. The injury list keeps getting shorter and now I think it’s just Diaby and Lauren, and then Ljungberg, Baptista, and Eboue with minor injuries.

Even though it’s Reading we’re playing on Sunday, who’ve just been promoted, it won’t be a walk in the park. On paper we should win easily but the game’s not being played on paper (quote from FIFA 07). After losing on Tuesday we really have to prove ourselves and get back on track. Kolo Toure isn’t underestimating Reading either:

“We will have to be on top of our game at Reading because they are doing well in The Premiership and it will be a really hard game. It will be tough but we have the character, the spirit, and we want to win and to win The Premiership. To win the Premiership title you need to win games like this and we will go to Reading and try to beat them. I think we have the character, definitely. We have even shown that at CSKA Moscow because we played a strong team, went behind and yet scored a good goal which the referee didn’t give to us.”

We might be a bit edgy but I think our quality will come through and we should win comfortably, Chelsea only won narrowly 1-0 at The Madejski, and Man United were held to a 1-1 draw, hopefully we can do better than our rivals and stick a few past ‘em. I’ll have a match preview to come before the game hopefully.

Not much other news to report, only this from inside the Arsenal blogging world: The very first Arseblog Arsecast comes out today to make sure you check that out, I can’t wait! Have a good Friday people.