March 28, 2006 marked the date Arsenal Football Club said out with the old and in with the new in emphatic fashion.
It was a typically frosty evening in N5, as the Gunners welcomed Italian giants Juventus to Highbury in what was the iconic old ground's last season in operation before it was to be turned into a residential area. Arsene Wenger's Arsenal were keen to give it the send off it deserved with a decent run in Europe.
Having won the Premier League two years prior and the FA Cup the season before, Arsenal weren't exactly minnows - but on the European stage they had far less stature than the Turin-based titans standing in their way. While the magnitude of the Champions League quarter-final clash was obvious, there was a captivating side-story throughout.
This was due to the fact that Patrick Vieira - a man synonymous with the Gunners' success of the early Wenger-era and who scored the penalty to win that very same FA Cup 10 months prior, was now lining up in the famous black and white shirt of Juventus. He had not left under any cloud, there were no jeers greeting his return, but the sight of the lanky Frenchman at Highbury in opposition colours left many struggling to resonate.
The reason why Vieira left was to be laid bare within the 90 minutes that followed, as where once stood the commanding presence of Arsenal's former number four now stood a silky Spaniard by the name of Cesc Fabregas.
Only 18 at the time, he had already been earmarked as Vieira's replacement, though it was not a comparison the player himself enjoyed. "I don't like it when people say, 'You are the new Patrick'. No I'm not. I'm Cesc Fabregas. I am different," he told The Express at the time.
"Of course you can learn things from big players like Patrick. But you play your own game. You cannot forget that Arsenal signed you because you have other qualities. I do not feel pressure. It's quite the opposite.
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"Now I know everyone here, I know the way they play. It is a mental thing. We have lost Patrick, who was a fantastic captain and great player. It is always difficult to go on after that. But we are strong and we know we can do it."
Fabregas did it and then some, he picked his moment too. The visit of Juventus for the first-leg saw the master return to his old stomping ground in a bid to put the student in his place, but it played out like anything but.
Arsenal's teenage wonderkid was on fire from the first whistle, displaying the kind of composure that would never leave his game in the subsequent years to come. Fabregas could not have been built in a more contrasting mould to Vieira, yet seemed to beat the Frenchman to every ball using his speed of thought and diminutive frame.
The first truly defining moment of Fabregas' Arsenal and indeed entire career came on the 40th minute mark, when his low driven effort left Gianluigi Buffon helpless - the shot-stopper could only stand watch the ball trickle beyond him and over the line. The Gunners, fresh off of a victory against Real Madrid in the previous round, were now a goal to the good against the best Italy had to offer.
Buoyed by their first, everyone of an Arsenal persuasion inside the ground knew to make this momentum truly count a second was required. It came with 20 minutes left to play and Fabregas was at the heart of it once more as he found Thierry Henry who made no mistake from close range.
The final whistle was eventually blown to bring to an end a breathless encounter that in truth looked like too quick for Vieira. He was cautioned towards the final exchanges and was therefore ruled out of the second-leg back in Turin, something he may have been secretly thankful for after being given the run-around by his baby-faced successor.
Arsenal would go on to reach the final of that tournament, only for a last-gasp capitulation against FC Barcelona on a rain-sodden night in Paris to ruin their hopes of ultimate European glory - it remains a trophy they are still without to this day.
As for the two protagonists of that fateful night at Highbury, Fabregas is still plying his trade in Ligue 1 with Monaco after spells with Barcelona and Arsenal's London rivals Chelsea respectively. Vieira is back on English soil as the manager of Crystal Palace and has even guided the Eagles to the last four of the FA Cup in his debut campaign.
Prior to his appointment at Selhurst Park, Vieira was in charge of French outfit Nice, where he actually ran into Fabregas when they took on Monaco three years ago. "I saw Patrick Vieira when we played against Nice with Monaco," Fabregas recalled to Nice-Matin.
"It was very funny because I met him in the locker room before the match, he was with the president of Nice and he said to him while looking at me: ‘President, this is the kid who made me leave Arsenal'."
It was hard to appreciate at the time, but Fabregas showed Vieira exactly why that was the case as the Frenchman found himself on the receiving end of his successor's Highbury masterclass.
In early 2021, Wenger faced the difficult decision of having to choose between the pair while on punditry duty for beIN Sports. "Well, they were both of my former players so that is very difficult.
"I always say, and I said that in my book, the guy that gave me time and credit at Arsenal was Patrick Vieira, because he was the first player I bought. And Fabregas was an exceptional football player. And still is, because he is still playing."
Both players can be immensely proud of their careers, with both honours lists making for incredible reading, yet it is actually Vieira who boasts the edge in terms of major honours won with 16. Fabregas ran him close with 13, much like he ran him out of Arsenal with his jaw-dropping ability at such a young age.
