‘He’s only just SIXTEEN, he’s better than Roy KEANE’ sang the adoring Highbury North Bank at the first sight of the new wonderkid on the block.

He left many a broken heart when he signed for Barcelona eight years later with ostensibly just an FA Cup winners’ medal and runners-up gongs from the League Cup and Champions League to show.

To manager Arsene Wenger, who treated him like the son he never had, and senior team-mates such as Thierry Henry, Patrick Vieira and Robert Pires, he was one of the Invincibles in all but name.

Two decades on, a touch thinner and greyer on top, but still supremely slim and fit, one of the greatest midfield players of his generation is smiling at the memory of that Keane ditty.

“Well, it's not fair to say that I won it in (the Invincibles season of) 2004, but I did feel part of it because I was with them every day. I was changing with them, I was training everyday with them. Arsene wanted me in there with the senior players.

"I played three League Cup games, I went to the Champions League as well, on the bench. So, did I feel part of it? Yes. Because I was involved in everything they did.

“And I want to believe that I did my part in the training sessions to try to raise the level in whatever part I could, making my name inside the team. Some of the players were kind enough later on to say that I kept them on their toes and made them play better as I was pushing for their place in the team.

"I had a lot of self belief and felt I was ready even then, but perhaps physically Arsene knew I wasn't ready to play regularly. I cannot say that I won it because I didn't play, but I am feeling part of it now because I did feel part of it then.”

Fabregas would eventually get his Premier League medal when he returned from Spain to Chelsea, his dream return to Arsenal rejected by Wenger’s not so invincible new vision of success.

He seems over it enough now to say he is fully behind Mikel Arteta’s bid to end Arsenal’s 20 years of hurt and pip Liverpool and reigning champions Manchester City as they go into their last five matches of the season on top of the table at home to none other than Chelsea tonight.

And he adds: “Then Tottenham on Sunday! Those are two massive games for Arsenal, that's for sure. They need two wins. They need to keep the momentum, they need to keep the pressure up. Last year, they struggled a little bit in moments like this. But I think they have matured, they have learned.

"They have the experience of what happened last year. And, you know, a strong team will grow from it. And I think this year, they are ready to show that.

“It would be fantastic if they win the title because that means that the club is where they deserve to be. They belong to be competing at this level. They have been at the top for the last two years, which is already a big thing after a few years where maybe they were not so competitive.”

Some Arsenal fans, perhaps unaware of his desire to play in the red and white again felt slighted when he ended up lifting trophies for Jose Mourinho’s Chelsea and let him know how they felt in no uncertain terms.

Fabregas, however, remains the bigger man and, ultimately, an Arsenal fan. He describes Wenger as a father figure and feels indebted to the club that gave him the platform to go on and win two European Championships and a World Cup Final for Spain.

And as for his fellow countryman Mikel Arteta and the latest Arsenal generation? “I'm delighted for them. I know what they're building in. I know what they stand for with Edu, the owners and obviously Mikel and his players.

"Some of the younger ones who have come through like Bukayo Saka, Martinelli and Smith Rowe remind me of when I was there age, that spirit and desire together. I'm very happy for them.”

The smile briefly softens as he recalls his younger years when Wenger built his side around him and they went so close to winning the Premier League in 2008-09.

He added: “In fact, we had a couple of years when we went very, very, very close. It's not an excuse, but we did have some very bad injuries. I remember players such as Flamini, Hleb, Rosicky, van Persie, Eduardo all being out at important stages of those campaigns.

"When you lose three or four big players in a young team you will always struggle. Hopefully this doesn't happen to Arsenal this year and they can still compete for the title until the end.”

With that, it’s off with the coat, on with the floodlights and he is making dreams come true and keeping sponsors happy with a starring role in a six-a-side match at west London’s Westway Sports Centre.

Hardly Highbury, Wembley or the Camp Nou, but he still has the touch, in both a football and personal sense.

*Cesc Fabregas was speaking at the launch event of the Enterprise Rent-a-Player competition in London