Hit hard and true inside Victor Valdés's right-hand post, the penalty kick was the last act of Cesc Fábregas's English season. On a night when he and his team-mates had spent the opening 20 minutes as mere spectators, no more able to prevent Barcelona producing a mesmerising exhibition of the game's most incisive skills than the millions watching on television, that 84th-minute goal secured a 2-2 draw and salvaged Arsenal's pride.
Fábregas had gone into the first leg of the 2010 Champions League quarter-final carrying a leg injury, but had insisted on playing against his old club. In the last minute of the first half, a caution meant that he would be suspended for the return fixture. With the assistance of Theo Walcott, a dynamic 66th-minute substitute, he turned a 2-0 deficit back to parity, but he was again a spectator, and this time a helpless one, as Barcelona triumphed 4-1 in the Camp Nou.
Complex emotions were involved. Fábregas had been open about his ambition to return one day to the Catalan club, even though in 2006, with six years left on his contract, Arsenal had agreed to extend his deal by a further five years, with an option for three more. Last June the North London club turned down Barcelona's offer of €35m (£29.2m), but there was a suspicion that Arsène Wenger had made a deal with his captain not unlike the one Sir Alex Ferguson worked out with a similarly inclined Cristiano Ronaldo. Stay one more season and win something big with us, Wenger may have said, and then you can go home.
On Wednesday evening the relationship between the 23-year-old Fábregas and FC Barcelona will come under further scrutiny. Given that the Arsenal captain lined up alongside a clutch of Barcelona players to collect a World Cup winner's medal last July, yet another set of emotional ties has been added to the encounter. And now there is the strong feeling, despite a statement in recent days from Raul Sanllehi, Barcelona's director of football, that this summer Fábregas will make his long anticipated return to the club where he spent the years between the ages of 10 and 16.
"Cesc is a great Catalan player," Sanllehi said, preparing to play a dead bat. "He played for us as a boy and he will be welcome back at Barcelona for the Champions League match. Right now, everything is dead regarding a transfer."
In the same interview, Sanllehi expressed incredulity at the size of the fee paid by Chelsea for another Spaniard, Fernando Torres, last month. "Barcelona would not make that signing," he said. "We would not even consider it." But given that the club showed no reluctance to pay €40m for David Villa last summer, Sanllehi's words may have been intended either to turn down the temperature of a potential bidding war, or to deflect disruptive speculation before the start of an important tie.
Since Arsenal are now Manchester United's only remaining credible rivals for the Premier League title, are still in the FA and European Cups, and have a League Cup final on the horizon, they are seemingly well placed to give their captain the chance to win a major club trophy for the first time since the FA Cup victory against Manchester United in May 2005, the month he turned 18.
No doubt Fábregas's protestations of affection for Arsenal are every bit as real as his attachment to Barcelona. Such a division of even the deepest emotions is not impossible. Do you love your mother more than your father? Your cat more than your dog? In this case, a young man left home at 16, was well looked after, and would now like to return, while appearing to acknowledge the need to repay a debt before his departure.
The way things have gone for Arsenal this season, he is in a strong position to leave with his head held high. The maturing partnership of Alex Song and Jack Wilshere at the base of midfield allows Fábregas to position himself further forward, where he can use his vision and touch to the most damaging effect. Robin van Persie's return to fitness has given his designs a focal point, the flowering of Samir Nasri has taken away some of the burden of being the main goalscorer from midfield, and Theo Walcott, eager and improving, has become a regular co-conspirator.
While discussing Fábregas on Tuesday, Wenger stuck to his usual line. "He will approach it as he does every game, with a huge desire to win," he said. "Cesc is an exceptional footballer but he is as well a winner. He wants to win in every single game and when he doesn't achieve that he is hugely frustrated, so he will be even more in that frame of mind. 'What can I do to win? What can I do to help the team win?' That's how he will be."
But those complex emotions are still in play, those hints of fratricide and divided loyalties that add an underlay of dramatic tension to an already enticing contest.
Source: Richard Williams, The Guardian on 16 Feb 11
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