Remembering the season ‘little kid’ Cesc Fabregas stole Arsenal hearts

Witnessing a young footballer play without shackles and sprinkling the pitch with magic is undoubtedly one of football’s greatest sights, as Cesc Fabregas proved when propelling Arsenal into the Champions League’s latter stages for the first time.

Had the new Brexit rules making English clubs unable to sign foreign players under 18 existed in 2003, Fabregas could easily have slipped through Arsenal’s grasp. Instead, the Gunners poached a 16-year-old Fabregas from Barcelona’s La Masia treasure trove, thus beginning a north London love affair.

The Spaniard went on to become Arsenal’s youngest ever player, youngest goalscorer and El Capitan, but the 2005-06 season was particularly significant for both player and club. It was to be Arsenal’s final season playing at their beloved Highbury home, commemorated by an iconic redcurrant strip.

For Fabregas, who had already made 33 league appearances the previous campaign, it was a season brimming with opportunity. There was a vacant spot at the heart of midfield after the summer departure of captain and talisman Patrick Vieira. But there was only one successor in Arsene Wenger’s eyes.

Thierry Henry remembers Fabregas playing in what resembled an oversized dress; though the shirt was clearly too big for him, Vieira’s boots were not.

Fabregas scored on the opening day of the season, a bright point in a 2-1 Community Shield defeat to Jose Mourinho’s Chelsea – foreshadowing what was to come later that season.

In the league, young Cesc grabbed goals against Blackburn and Fulham by developing a habit of arriving late into dangerous positions. With Gilberto Silva acting as a midfield enforcer alongside him, Fabregas had the freedom to ghost further up the pitch, playing incisive