Cesc Fabregas Explains What Mikel Arteta’s Arsenal Did That ‘Doesn’t Exist’

Cesc Fabregas has highlighted how important Arsenal’s patience with Mikel Arteta was in allowing the manager to rebuild something that “doesn’t exist” enough in modern football.

The former Arsenal captain made his return to the Emirates, this time in the dugout, as Como held the Premier League Champions to a 1-1 draw in their final pre-season game before the Community Shield.

Fabregas represented the Gunners over 300 times throughout his playing career. The Spaniard returned to the Emirates to see Arsenal in a considerably different place to when he left them, and to the club that Mikel Arteta inherited.

The Gunners finally delivered the Premier League trophy after a 22-year wait, with Arteta becoming the first Arsenal manager since Arsene Wenger to win the English top flight.

Asked what it meant to return to North London with Arsenal now champions, Fabregas pointed to the years that came before that success.

“Amazing. Amazing. I mean, congratulations to the club in general, starting from seven, eight years ago when they first started with this project.”

Fabregas was particularly struck by Arsenal standing by Arteta even when results weren’t going their way.

“What Arsenal did, especially in the difficult moments, it doesn’t exist. It doesn’t exist.”

Arteta took charge midway through the 2019/20 campaign in what proved to be a tough season, finishing eighth in the League. Despite an FA Cup triumph at the end of the season, Arsenal followed with another eighth-place finish the next season, missing out on Champions League Football again with a fifth-place finish in the 2021/22 campaign. Something that many managers would not have survived.

Arsenal kept their faith in Arteta; rather than changing manager the Gunners pushed on with the rebuild.

Fabregas believes that willingness to persist with a plan is increasingly rare.

“You keep going because you have a plan because you have an objective you have a progression you keep going forward you know and uwe lack this in football today every day you see okay lose three games change the coach he was playing one style now he’s playing another and at the end of the day I don’t believe in this a lot.”

That trust in the manager proved fruitful.

Arsenal returned to the Champions League and established themselves among the Premier League title challengers before finally going one step further in 2025/26.

Fabregas has watched that development from afar while beginning his own managerial career with Como, and there are elements of what Arsenal have built that he would like to carry into his own project.

“We’re trying to look a little bit at the stability that Arsenal had, at the values at the culture that they are bringing and I think Mikel has done a tremendous job.”

Fabregas also praised the players that Arsenal now have inside the club.

“I don’t know these guys now you talk to them and they give you I don’t know they are good guys you know and they want to play good football they are respectful you can see how they stick to the plan all the time.”

Fabregas knows just as much as anyone how heavy the expectations can be when playing for Arsenal. He developed from an academy arrival into club captain during his eight years in North London before returning to Barcelona in 2011.

The Premier League trophy itself was the culmination of Arteta’s work and the trust the club has put in him over the years. Fabregas’ admiration appears to be rooted just as much in the journey it took to get there. The years outside the Champions League, the disappointing Premier League finishes, and the pressure on the manager did not force the club into another change of direction.

Arteta was given time to continue building. Arsenal eventually got the reward Fabregas believes too few clubs are prepared to wait for.