Just Fab: The Arsenal skipper inspired the Gunners to their 6-0 mauling of Braga Arsenal's six-goal victory was the biggest winning margin for an opening group stage match in Champions League history.
Braga were completely outclassed on a 'night to forget' for their boss, Domingos Paciencia, who admitted he would have preferred the match to have finished at half-time, when Arsenal were just three goals ahead.
Arsene Wenger said: 'I think it's important we take encouragement from what we're doing at the moment, but keep our feet on the ground. We can be very creative, be dangerous and score goals.
'As long as we have not won the Champions League, people will question the way we play. But you win it with quality. I believe we played the game we wanted to play: at a high pace with top technical quality and with a lot of creative attacking and good concentration and a good collective spirit. Our game is based on that and for long patches in the game we managed to express that.'
Head boy: Fabregas scores his second and Arsenal's fourth in their Group H opener Yet Arsenal captain Cesc Fabregas, who scored twice, was not satisfied with his side's performance and berated himself for failing to score his first senior hat-trick.
Fabregas said: 'I think I had a lot of opportunities and I had a one-on-one. I'm disappointed. I wanted to score a hat-trick. It's the only thing I haven't done as a professional and I wanted a hat-trick today. It was a good performance but, in the last 10 minutes, we played too easily and we should have stepped up.
Jack the lad: Wilshere impressed alongside Fabregas 'We had good discipline until then, but we will have games where you can't get it easy at any moment. So we have to make sure we do it for 90 minutes.'
However, Wenger praised his captain, saying the World Cup winner has moved on to 'another dimension' this season.
The Arsenal manager said: 'Cesc had a big influence tonight. I think he has taken another dimension. People forget he's 23 years old, where other players start. He's a fantastic influence and it's important he leads this team to winning.
'It's a fantastic opportunity for other young players to play alongside him. I like the fact he gave the ball to Vela instead of playing alone. It reflects what we want to do and reflects the attitude of a leader.
'He loves this club. People doubted that, but I never doubted that. He enjoys the way we play and what do you want more to be happy?'
Wenger was also delighted to see young midfielder Jack Wilshere shine alongside Fabregas. He added: 'It's difficult to compare the two players but both have an exceptional talent.'
Paciencia was left stunned by his side's thrashing on their debut in the Champions League group stage but insisted Braga's poor performance was not a true reflection of their talent.
On target: Marouane Chamakh gets on the scoresheet following an excellent backheel from Jack Wilshere
He said: 'We made so many mistakes and showed so many fallibilities in defence today so it's very hard to take. We played badly. 'It would be better to have finished the game at half-time and even then it would have been a bad experience. Noone was expecting a result like this.
'It's a shame because this isn't the image we want to give of Braga. We know we're a big team and that's what we'll keep in mind. This was a night to forget.'
source: dailymail
