Fed up Fabregas says time for talk will be at end of season

CESC FABREGAS is bored with having to field questions on Arsenal title credentials – win or lose – and maintains the only answer which matters will come at the end of the season.

The Gunners moved back into second place in the Barclays Premier League following Sunday’s 3-0 win over 10-man Manchester City at Eastlands.

Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger feels the result will lift confidence within his squad after successive defeats before the international break.

Wenger also talked about the team’s growing maturity, patience and intelligence as the Gunners made the most of Dedryck Boyata’s early dismissal with goals from Samir Nasri, Alex Song and substitute Nicolas Bendtner.

Fabregas though, has heard it all before – and insists May will be the only time to judge. “It looks like after every win you have to say ‘oh, you are more mature than last year’, but it is just one more game, let’s not get carried away,” he said.

“Now we have the Carling Cup game against Newcastle, which is the most important one at the moment. The time to talk about if we have matured or are better than before will be at the end of the season. In football, you know what people will say when you win, and you know what people will say when you lose”.

Fabregas last night moved to clarify headlines generated from his post-match comments on Sky, when he stated: “Even if they were 15 and we were 11, we would still go and win.”

In a post on his official Twitter account, the Arsenal captain wrote: “Once again you see that people read things and understand things the way that will work better for them.... I never said we would beat City with 15 men, I said that even if they were 15 players, we’d have to still try to go for the win as usual.”

Events at Eastlands could have been so different, however, had stand-in goalkeeper Lukasz Fabianski not made a fine reaction save from David Silva’s close-range flick in the opening few minutes, before Boyata saw red for bringing down Marouane Chamakh.

Poland shot-stopper Fabianski, who has grown in stature in his latest spell deputising for the injured Manuel Almunia, feels Arsenal have taken their clinical European form back into domestic action.

“We are more ruthless now. We are creating chances in every single game and it’s not just about making them, it’s about taking them,” Fabianski said.

Arsenal now head to Newcastle for tomorrow night’s Carling Cup fourth-round clash. Wenger had named a strong squad for the win at Tottenham in the previous round, and is expected to do so again as the Gunners boss targets a first trophy success since 2005.

Bendtner and fit-again Theo Walcott could be included, while centre-half Laurent Koscielny was an unused substitute against City as he continues to recover from a back problem.

Youngsters Henri Lansbury, who scored his first senior goal at White Hart Lane, and Jay Emmanuel-Thomas, could make the squad for the trip to Tyneside. 21-year-old midfielder Mark Randall has headed to Rotherham on a three-month loan deal.