October 28 – The Joy of Cesc | On This Football Day

October 28 – The Joy of Cesc

A 1-1 draw in the League Cup between Arsenal and Rotherham today in 2003 doesn’t sound like the most exciting of occasions to base today’s nugget of footballing history on, but one of Arsene Wenger’s young charges was making his debut that day, and he’s proved to go on to be not too shabby at this football lark.

Cesc Fabregas was just one of six Arsenal players to make his debut in the clash, become Arsenal’s youngest-ever player in the process, aged just 16 years and 177 days, breaking Jermaine Pennant’s record.

The young Spaniard was snapped up by Wenger as a 16-year-old in September 2003 when the Barcelona youngster felt that his chances at Camp Nou would be limited. He didn’t have to wait long for his debut, when Wenger used the third round League Cup tie to do his usual trick of blooding the youngsters.

Alongside Cesc, Justin Hoyte, Jerome Thomas, Gael Clichy, Graham Stack and Ryan Smith all made their debuts and the young side took a early lead through Jeremie Aliadiere. It stayed 1-0 until the 90th minute, when Darren Byfield equalised to send the match into extra time. To be fair, it was past most of the squad’s bedtime at that point.

No goals followed in extra time and the match went to an eventful penalty shoot-out, where Arsenal eeked out a 9-8 win, after both sides went through an entire team of penalty takers, goalkeepers and all. It was one of the old men of the Arsenal side that sealed the win when Sylvain Wiltord put away his second penalty, after missing the first kick of the shoot-out.

In his first season Cesc would notch up two more appearance in the League Cup, scoring a goal against Wolves in the next round to become Arsenal’s youngest ever scorer.

Since then Fabregas has graduated from Wenger’s League Cup finishing side, cementing his place at the heart of the Arsenal midfield after the departure of Patrick Vieira to Juventus in 2005 and become one of the most exciting young talents in the world.

See a Cesc highlight reel that looks as though it’s been put together by the producers of 24 below and also see what else was going on today here.