Cesc Fàbregas guided Como to a historic 2-0 victory over Juventus, the club’s first in more than 70 years, with Arsène Wenger and Thierry Henry watching on from the stands.
The result marked another milestone for Fàbregas’s growing reputation as a manager, just months after leading the Lombardy side into Serie A in his first season.
Suspended from the touchline, he watched his players defeat one of Italy’s traditional giants thanks to a goal and assist from Nico Paz, a player Fàbregas described as having “the right mentality to become a top player.”
“I’m very confident about his future because I can recognise when a player has the mindset to become a top player,” Fàbregas told DAZN. “If he continues like this, he can go wherever he wants.”
Paz, 21, set up Marc-Oliver Kempf to volley Como ahead in the fourth minute before sealing the victory himself with a brilliant solo goal, cutting in from the right and curling a left-footed strike beyond Michele Di Gregorio.
The result lifted Como into 6th, above Juventus and into the European places on goal difference, a remarkable start to the season for a club that last beat the Bianconeri in 1952 and hadn’t played in the division for 21 years.
After the match, Fàbregas revealed that Wenger had visited him before kick-off. “We spoke an hour before the game, all I can do is thank him because he was the coach that gave me my start in my career at 16 years old,” he said. “He believed in me in the same way that I believe in Nico Paz.”
For Fàbregas, Wenger’s presence was deeply symbolic. Their relationship, starting when Wenger signed him from Barcelona’s academy as a teenager, has defined much of his football philosophy.
Juventus, under Igor Tudor, have now gone six matches without a win, their slump continuing after five successive draws.
But at Como’s lakeside Stadio Giuseppe Sinigaglia, the focus was firmly on Fàbregas, whose young side delivered a performance would have impressed his mentor while adding his own imprint.