‘We have a war’: Cesc Fabregas shares the unusual tactic Patrick Vieira used before every ‘big’ Arsenal match

With Ethan Nwaneri edging ever closer to his Arsenal breakthrough, it’s hard not to compare the youngster’s path to that of Cesc Fabregas in North London.

Arsene Wenger first turned to Fabregas at Arsenal during a period in which the Gunners were missing Patrick Vieira and Gilberto Silva.

Arsenal may now do the same with Nwaneri for the upcoming North London derby, given that both Declan Rice (suspended) and Martin Odegaard (injured) will be missing.

Norway’s doctors have provided an update on Odegaard, saying the Arsenal captain could even miss the tie with Manchester City next weekend.

Therefore, Nwaneri may make his entrance in similar fashion to Fabregas, and perhaps never look back.

Patrick Vieira would deliberately kick Arsenal teammates in training

That being said, Fabregas has been speaking about Vieira’s tactics as a leader at Arsenal on ‘The Rest Is Football’ podcast.

Fabregas recalled an unusual approach Vieira would take in training before big games, how he would indicate that there was a ‘war’ on the horizon.

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Fabregas shared: “He was a great leader I have to say. I will always remember before every big game, so let’s say if we play the Saturday against Man United, the Friday morning prior to this game, he will kick someone in training and he will create a kind of tension moment for everyone to feel that, hey, in 24 hours we have a war.

“You know, I remember one time he did a really, I was going to say great tackle, it was not a great tackle really, but on Freddie Ljungberg and they started to kind of fight and then sometimes with Jes Lehmann etc, etc.

“So he knew what he was doing. He was defending always his teammates on and off the pitch and the presence that he had on Saturdays, you know when we were playing on the pitch was something that I haven’t seen from many players.”

Arsenal without their usual leaders for the North London derby

On the subject of leaders, Arsenal will be without Mikel Arteta’s two most prominent individuals in that sense on Sunday – Odegaard and Rice.

Gabriel Jesus might captain Arsenal if he’s fit, but he certainly doesn’t seem like the kind of character to follow in Vieira’s example.

Perhaps Gabriel Magalhaes is the most prickly character in that sense looking in from the outside, a player who’s happy to get involved in all sorts of duels.

That being said, Gabriel was criticised by Brazilian media for becoming too involved in such antics in his country’s 1-0 defeat to Paraguay this week. 

Arsenal do have some very tough characters, but my word would they like to have someone like Vieira in his prime available for this trip to Tottenham.