Barnet 0 v Arsenal 4 - Pre-season friendly

Say it often enough, and the message will finally sink in. That is what Arsene Wenger is hoping for after continually refusing Barcelona’s advances for Cesc Fabregas over the course of the summer. The Catalans have shamefully and very publicly courted Fabregas with Barcelona players Carlos Puyol, Lionel Messi and Andres Iniesta all going on record stating their desire to see Fabregas return to his hometown club. Wenger has been adamant, that this scenario will not happen, even when Barcelona president Sandro Rossell sought to meet Wenger at the World Cup in Johannesburg to discuss the deal, the Arsenal manager refused point blank to entertain Rossell or any of his avowed desires. And after Arsenal had seen off Barnet in their traditional curtain raiser at Underhill, Wenger expressed the need for any further Fabregas stories to stop.

"Cesc

is our captain, he is so important to us and we want to keep him,  that is why we were not listening to any offers. It was not a problem of money, just the desire to keep him at the club.

"We can only influence our own behaviour, and I believe things have now gone straight again with Sandro Rosell. We always had a consistent attitude and were always reluctant to talk about Cesc's departure. It is very important we give the impression that because somebody wants a player from us, we don't just give in," said Wenger.

Goals from Andrey Arshavin, Samir Nasri and a Jay Simpson brace gave the Gunners a comfortable win over Barnet, with Wenger giving new signings Marouane Chamakh and Laurent Koscielny their first taste of action, but Wenger was still fuming at the behaviour and arrogance of Barcelona over Fabregas.

"There was a lot of unneeded talk. It is not pleasant to read this every day. Now, the story has to stop, " continued Wenger.

"We have shown our love and care for Cesc since the start. I believe Cesc loves the club, has shown his attachment to the club many times and I am very confident the story will end there. We want Cesc to be part of our club next year, and that is it.

"What we want is to build a team for the future, to develop our team and are not in any talks for next year or the year after - we want our players to be focused on the targets we have at the Club."

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