Bolton Wanderers 0 Arsenal 2

ARSENAL manager Arsene Wenger hailed the return of captain Cesc Fabregas after the midfielder inspired their 2-0 victory at Bolton and warned the rest of the Barclays Premier League he will only get better.

The Spain international scored the opening goal in the 28th minute, then started the move which led to Fran Merida finishing off Bolton 12 minutes from time.

He also had justifiable claims for at least one penalty, possibly two, in the first half and was the major inspiration behind the Gunners’ performance.

Fabregas has missed Arsenal’s last three matches with a hamstring injury but his comeback delighted Wenger.

‘‘If you watched the game it is difficult to say how much we have missed him but you don’t need to explain to anyone that it is important,’’ said the Frenchman.

‘‘What is very interesting for us is Cesc gets stronger and stronger and has more personality on the pitch, like the whole team.

‘‘He grows. He will be 23 this year – he is just starting.’’ Wenger dismissed concerns his captain had been targeted unfairly by Bolton’s players after he received some rough treatment from a side playing their first match under new boss Owen Coyle.

‘‘Sometimes it looked, from the outside, that he got harshly treated. That is linked with gifted players,’’ he added.

‘‘It is difficult to take the ball off them, but he is the guy who touches the ball more than anyone else so it is not illogical the opposition should try to stop him playing.

‘‘We expected a fully-committed Bolton team and we were not disappointed.

‘‘They gave absolutely everything and put us under pressure a lot but we tried to put the ball down and play, sometimes it worked very well during spells in the first half.

‘‘I expected them to drop a little bit at the beginning of the second half as we dropped our level, but they had a period for 20 minutes when they had chances and looked dangerous because we lost too many balls in midfield.

‘‘It was important for us not to get to the last 15 minutes only one goal up and the second goal killed the game.’’ Coyle was disappointed with the result but delighted with the display.

‘‘I thought the level of performance was terrific,’’ he said. ‘‘What we offered for the duration of the match would, on another day, have resulted in points.

‘‘We were always in the game, particularly second half, and they weren’t halfchances, they were real giltedged chances.

‘‘We created chances from the first minute of the match and if you analyse that game I think we were deserving of a better result.

‘‘We never got that break you need against these elite clubs – the first goal hit Matt Taylor on the back of the head and a couple of boys fell over when the ball came into the box.’’ However, he could not argue with the performance of Fabregas.

‘‘The quality of Fabregas, with the first goal when he bounced a one-two off Eduardo, he could play for anyone in world football,’’ Coyle said.

■ Martin O’Neill played down the significance of a verbal exchange with Aston Villa fans situated behind the dug-out during the latter stages of the home goalless draw with West Ham.

O’Neill and Villa’s goalkeeping coach Seamus Mc- Donagh appeared to have words with several spectators as a frustrating share of the spoils reached its climax.

The game ended with around half a dozen stewards in position alongside but O’Neill was adamant what occurred was ‘‘not a big issue’’.

The former Celtic boss tried to laugh off the incident and said: ‘‘It was my brother. I told him not to say anything. He was giving me a bit of advice.

I shall see him when I get home tonight.

‘‘I didn’t know about Seamus and I’m not so sure this is really a big issue. It does not concern me.

‘‘The issue today was we were unable to score a goal but it was a big effort by my players considering we played in the Carling Cup semi-final only on Thursday.

‘‘It is disappointing the win didn’t materialise and when you drop points at home it can be considered a missed opportunity.

‘‘But I think this result and other ones this weekend involving teams near us in the table highlight how difficult this league is.’’ O’Neill believes the fair play of his skipper Stiliyan Petrov prevented West Ham midfielder Radoslav Kovac from being sent off in the second half for a second bookable offence.

O’Neill said: ‘‘I think Stiliyan kept Kovac on the pitch by getting up so quickly because it did look a bookable offence.

‘‘If he had stayed down, the player would have been sent off, so well done to Stiliyan.