Cesc hopes Hleb stays

In a full interview he has given to the Spanish Daily El Pais Cesc talks at length of his role in the Spanish side, how he needs to adapt his game when playing alongside Xavi and the forthcoming match against Sweden in which he comes up against former Gunners Ljungberg, Larsson and Shabaan.

Naturally he is thrilled with his goal against Russia and seems to believe that he is the youngest Spanish goal scorer in a European tournament. "I started as a professional 4 years ago and I`m still beating records of this type. A great satisfaction"

He was equally satisfied with his pass that led to Villa`s hat trick and appreciative of Xavi`s gesture in congratulating him acknowledging that the teams reaction to him is 'phenomenal`. "A good pass is often better than a goal" he says "We have spoken about it many times with team-mates and trainers but no matter how much success I have scoring at Arsenal my first job is not to get goals" he continues "My role is to create them. I have always liked to assist goals"

As the interviewer drew comparisons with what Hleb does for Cesc at Arsenal Cesc, Iniesta or Silva does for Xavi in the Spanish team Fabregas responds with "I don`t know, but I have always said that Hleb is an incredible player and has not always been appreciated for what he has done, well, what he is doing, because he is still an Arsenal player. He is that type of player who you don`t understand why justice is not done to his qualities. Hopefully we will continue many times together"

Does he think is it time to for him make his mark as a Spanish international player in this tournament? He thinks you can run too fast. "I have already had 27 appearances, that`s not too few, and I only reached 21 a month ago. That means Luis trusts me. But I have already gone very fast in my life like running constantly. There are many examples of players who want to run too fast and end up crashing and perhaps now, in the selection, it`s a case of not being in a hurry and continuing to do the work I do, taking it stage by stage."

Click here to join in the debate on the club forum.