Before his team defeated Real Madrid 2-1 on Saturday, FC Barcelona midfielder Cesc Fàbregas spoke to The Guardian about whether he would ever return to the Premier League. He also discussed how the league differs from his current spot in La Liga.
“Arsenal is in my heart and always will be,” Fàbregas told the English outlet. “I don’t know if I’ll have the opportunity to go back and play there one day, or maybe after football. It’s a club that is always going to be there and will always open its doors to me. The club’s like a family, so even if it wasn’t as a coach, I’m sure they’d give me the chance to play a role.”
The real interesting portion of his talk centered around the differences between the Premier League and La Liga. Fàbregas said leaving for Arsenal allowed him to play more minutes, which accelerated his development as a player, and it helped that Arsenal is “perhaps the team closest to Barcelona” in style of play.
“The English league is more difficult to win, but on an individual level, it is much, much easier to shine in England,” he said. “I always thought English football was the best to watch because there are more goals, more chances, more excitement. But now, I understand why there are more goals and more chances: it’s much more crazy, out of control, everyone attacking, pouring forward.”
The Spanish international with 86 caps would not say that he found the Premier League easier to navigate than La Liga, but he did intimate that Spanish players are generally more technical and smarter on the ball than their counterparts in England.
“It’s a question of space,” he said. “A Spanish-style footballer, like [David] Silva or [Mesut] Özil, if they can find two seconds to think, will see the pass because there’ll be space. ... In Spain, reducing space is worked on more. In England, it’s fast, but you can find that space if you are a good player.”
