Fàbregas looking forward with Arsenal

Arsenal FC's new captain, Cesc Fàbregas, admitted that Tuesday night's morale-boosting 1-0 victory over FC Dynamo Kyiv was "very important" for the north London club as they look to put recent disappointments behind them.

Winning start
Substitute Nicklas Bendtner ensured a winning start to Fàbregas' captaincy with the 87th-minute strike that booked Arsenal's passage to the last 16 of the UEFA Champions League from Group G. Having lost their previous two Premier League games – and seen William Gallas stripped of the armband after his public criticism of team-mates – Fàbregas said the win over Dynamo was vital for the confidence of everyone at Arsenal.

'A good game'
"It is important – you always want to start in a positive way, not just for [himself as captain] but also for the confidence of the team, of the fans, of everyone," the Spanish midfielder said. "We showed a good game today, we knew they would come to defend and they did just that. We tried to play the football we like to play and I think we did well. It was important that we kept a clean sheet and as long as it remained 0-0 we knew we could create and score goals in the last few minutes of the game, which is what we did."

Domestic focus
Fàbregas, who launched the long ball from which Bendtner struck, added that Arsenal now had the opportunity to focus on improving their domestic form, with European progress secured with a game to spare. "It was very important. We can relax a little bit now and concentrate on the Premier League," said Fàbregas, whose team visit English pacesetters Chelsea FC on Sunday, aiming to narrow the ten-point gap between the sides. "It is important for the title race to win. We have to go there and try to win and if we beat them we can get some points back so it would be a really good step forward."

'Do my best'
The 21-year-old added that wearing the captain's armband had not distracted him from his normal game: "I tried to be the same as usual – to do the same things and do my best on the pitch." Yet hard as he and his colleagues tried, Arsenal struggled to find their usual fluency against Dynamo in an occasionally disjointed performance. In mitigation, they were missing nine first-teamers and featured a midfield which, Fàbregas aside, had just 18 UEFA Champions League appearances between them. By the time the knockout stages start in February, though, the Spain playmaker hopes Arsenal – quarter-finalists last season and runners-up in 2006 – will be in better shape to make further progress. "It is vital for us to go through in this competition because after what happened last year and three years ago we want to get as far as we can and win, of course," he said.