Fabregas ready to come of age

Arsene Wenger believes Cesc Fabregas will come of age this season and prove that Arsenal don't need to spend big money to win the Premier League title.

The 20-year-old has been regarded as the most talented of Wenger's young prodigies for several seasons, but now the Spaniard has added goal-scoring to his game, making him the complete midfielder in the eyes of his manager.

He scored his fourth goal in six matches to help Arsenal to a 3-1 win over Portsmouth on Sunday, equalling his total for the whole of last season.

Wenger is convinced Fabregas is capable of being the kind of world-class playmaker who can ensuring compete with Chelsea, Manchester United and Liverpool for the game's top honours.

He drew a comparison with the way Paul Scholes combines striker's instinct with the ability to influence matches from midfield.

"He has a lot of characteristics of Scholes," Wenger said. "The frame, intelligence in the game, passing when to go into the box. He is only 20 and people forget that.

"I made a tape of him last year and you wouldn't believe how many chances he had. When he was a young boy he scored goals. That is a nice disease to have.

"Sometimes it disappears but it always comes back when you mature physically and mentally.

"When you go into the senior game you can lose it but if you did it in the youth team you can take advantage of positive situations anywhere."

If Russian billionaire Alisher Usmanov and former Gunners vice-chairman David Dein do manage to mount a takeover at Arsenal, Wenger is likely to have millions to spend in the transfer market.

But he maintains he has enough talent to succeed already, so spending vast sums on famous names would not necessarily be the best route to success.

"Money can always be enough or never enough," Wenger said. "If you have 100 pounds and your opponent has 200, then you want 200. When you have 200 he has 400. Where does it stop?

"It depends as well what the other clubs have. I believe football is great because everybody can have a chance by building a team.

"I feel we have stability. What is important in a football club is what is happening on the pitch.

"We are super ambitious and of course that creates a pressure but we can live with that. This team has been built to have an attacking personality. That means it is very important they express themselves.

"We have enough quality to fight for the championship. I selected these players and I believe in them. I have enough belief they share my ambition."

Arsenal were at their eye-catching best against Portsmouth.

They took the lead in the seventh minute when David James brought down Robin van Persie and Emmanuel Adebayor stroked home the penalty for his first goal of the season.

Fabregas got the second with a close-range strike after Gilberto Silva had flicked on a corner.

Philippe Senderos's dismissal early in the second half for a professional foul on former Arsenal striker Nwankwo Kanu did little to disturb Arsenal's rhythm.

Tomas Rosicky punished slack Portsmouth marking to extend Arsenal's lead and Kanu's strike a minute later was no consolation.

Redknapp admitted several of his new players had been given a harsh lesson in the special demands of the Premier League.

"One or two of the new signings are still coming to terms with the English game," Redknapp said. "People like John Utaka; on the ball he did some fantastic things, but he has to learn the otherside of the game as well.

"I didn't shout and screaming at anyone. We just had a chat about it.

"The problem is I won't see those players until Friday week because of the internationals. I can't sit down with them and show them videos and discuss the goals in detail.

"Then when they come back we are concentrating on playing Liverpool. Am I then going to start getting into them about what they did here? It's crazy."

Villa defeat tests Abramovich patience

Jose Mourinho admitted he could not blame Roman Abramovich for leaving early after Martin O'Neill's Aston Villa became the first side to beat Chelsea this season.

Abramovich, Chelsea's Russian owner, departed seconds after Villa scored their second goal to condemn the Blues to their first defeat since late January.

Debutant Zat Knight and Gabriel Agbonlahor, both local boys and lifelong Villa supporters, scored in the second half to leave Mourinho still waiting for his first Premier League victory at Villa Park.

It was a performance that suggested Chelsea might struggle to reclaim the league title this season, but Mourinho insisted that there was no great significance in Abramovich's early exit.

The Portuguese said: "Can I blame him for being frustrated? No. The owner leaves the stadium when he wants to leave. I went to see England play Germany the other week and left early because I wanted to run away from the traffic.

"But my congratulations go to Villa because we made a mistake we cannot make and got punished. We played well in my opinion.

"I'm not used to losing games which is a good thing. It is good because it means we win more than we lose and it's more difficult to live with a defeat."

The defeat means Liverpool and Arsenal have already established an early edge over Chelsea in the title race and Mourinho admitted: "The league will be tighter this year because a lot of teams have spent a lot of money.

"In my opinion there are a lot of good teams and a big improvement. It is more normal for the big teams to lose matches now.

"It's more difficult to play against teams like Villa because they are better. It is the first weekend of September and five games in so this means nothing yet."

Villa fully deserved their victory with an effervescent performance and are surely certain to make a marked improvement on their first season under Martin O'Neill.

Villa have avoided defeat to Chelsea since 1999 and Martin O'Neill was determined to pile on the agony

O'Neill is convinced that Villa's inability to claw their way higher up the table has been a result of their failure to beat the more established sides.

Liverpool have already accounted for Villa this season but their hoodoo over Chelsea showed no sign of abating at an exuberant Villa Park.

They could have gone in front early when Agbonlahor, the England under-21 international, nearly stunned the visitors in the eighth minute with a clever turn and shot but Petr Cech produced an excellent save.

But Chelsea responded strongly with Scott Carson, the England international goalkeeper, frustrating long-range efforts from Michael Essien and Shaun Wright-Phillips.

Villa's start to the second half was equally impressive and Ashley Young forced more heroics from Cech with a fine 20-yard effort.

From the resultant corner, Villa took the lead. Gareth Barry's corner was powerfully met by Knight and Ashley Cole on the goalline could not prevent it from finding the net.

Chelsea's misery was complete when Agbonlahor diverted Ashley Young's fierce cross cum shot past Cech a minute from time.

"We needed a good result against a good team like Chelsea to give us a boost," said O'Newill.

"We need it to give us some belief. But if you ask me if this team is better than it was last year I would say absolutely no question.

"We are getting better all the time and we've got loads of talent in the team. We've got that desire that Chelsea have shown in abundance again and again and again.

"I don't mind the expectation because this club should be built on it. We're not as good as the top four sides but we aspire to be.

"I'll now just wait and worry while my players are on international duty!"