Fabregas joins European soccer elite

London: After enduring a torrid campaign last season, it appears Cesc Fabregas is making the strongest case yet that he is the most effective midfielder in European football.

A troublesome knee injury which kept him out for four months and being handed the responsibility of captaincy were unforeseen complications to the Spaniard's fledgling career.

But the 22-year-old has been in supreme form both technically and aesthetically, he scored twice during Arsenal's comfortable 4-1 demolition of AZ Alkmaar on Wednesday night, suggesting that Wenger has unlocked his potential in the most emphatic way possible and rendering Fabregas's complaints over his inability to adapt to a more attacking role as mere growing pains.

In 14 matches this season, he has 11 assists and eight goals to his name and there is no sign of that devastating form abating any time soon.

It says a lot about the Spaniard's versatility that he has been able to largely abandon the old diagonal pass to find Emmanuel Adebayor in space that for so long was his stock creative ball, and can combine so effectively in a new system with a totally different front man.

Such is the defensive shield that Abou Diaby and Alex Song who deserve substantial credit in their own right produce on a now regular basis since those defeats to Manchester City and United, that Arsenal have already scored 51 goals from 17 different players.

Options

"Have I ever had as many options on the creative side? Certainly not," said Wenger. "We still have Nicklas Bendtner and Theo Walcott, who are offensive players, who are not available.

"Denilson, Eduardo and Tomas Rosicky did not start...that is why I was amazed when people said ‘buy, buy, buy' last summer. And we have Carlos Vela as well.

"We always try to play exactly the same game. When we played Alkmaar in Holland, they were organised not to concede.

"When you play away, the commitment is a bit stronger, the referee is a bit more lenient so it's more difficult to express it than at home.

"It was a brilliant performance. We dominated technically and tactically and we were never under threat. We played with confidence, we were technically astute and overall I am very happy indeed."

While Chelsea and Manchester United, who face each other in The League on Sunday, rested big names in their drawn matches last night, Wenger adopted the opposite policy and named his strongest side on the proviso they would do the job in double quick time and so it proved.