Cesc Fabregas - Arsenal's Player of the Month

Cesc Fabregas won Arsenal.com's September Player of the Month Award with 52.9% of the votes. Coming in a distant second was the excellent Alex Hleb with 23%, and following in third with 8.1% was Gael Clichy. All three were excellent this season with both Fabregas and Hleb on the scoresheet multiple times and Clichy's runs have created many problems for opposing defenders.

Fabregas deserves the award though. In an Arsenal lineup which has often been criticized for being too light-weight, Cesc has been a box-to-box midfielder, assisting and scoring in the attacking third and tough-tackling in the defending third. Arsenal's prodigious midfield maestro is truly coming of age and putting in some truly mature performances. We should all be happy that he decided not to leave for Spain this season, as Arsenal would not have had the same start to the season without him.

Hleb has improved similarly, becoming more selfish and scoring 2 goals already this season. He has also been executing his typical defense-cutting passes perfectly, and there aren't many (if any) better ball dribblers in England. If he continues to play the way he has been, he could become as feared in the Premier League as Cristiano Ronaldo.

Gael Clichy is one of the best defenders at Arsenal, and one of the best left-backs in English football. His marauding runs up the field have often created goals, and his defending has been world-class - often saving Lehmann and Almunia from making saves by tackling the ball away in the nick of time. Clichy is better than just a replacement for Ashley Cole.

All three of these players were excellent for Arsenal this month and have contributed greatly to our strong start to this years campaign. I feel like I've been saying this a lot lately, but if we keep up what we're doing, we won't be missing Henry at all this season.