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When Manchester United face Como in the Champions League on Wednesday night, they will come up against a familiar foe. Cesc Fabregas now manages the Italian outfit, but there was an era when he routinely lined up against the Red Devils as an Arsenal player.
The Spain international featured in numerous fiery encounters during Arsene Wenger's tenure as Arsenal manager and Sir Alex Ferguson's reign at United. Few proved more explosive than the infamous 'Pizzagate' incident, which remained shrouded in mystery until Fabregas finally revealed the truth more than a decade later.
The episode occurred in October 2004, following United's triumph over Arsenal at Old Trafford. The home side had prevented their rivals from reaching 50 consecutive league matches unbeaten after a controversial penalty decision left emotions running high, and Ferguson was struck by pizza as tensions erupted in the dressing room.
For over a decade, fierce debate continued regarding who was responsible for hurling the food that struck Ferguson. Eventually, in 2018, Fabregas confessed that he was the culprit.
There had been considerable speculation, with Fabregas identified as a possible suspect by Ferguson himself. Former Arsenal centre-back Martin Keown stoked the controversy, hinting that "A Spanish fella with great technique" was behind it while refusing to identify anyone specifically.
Fabregas was a teenager at the time of the incident and may have felt uncomfortable speaking out publicly. Nevertheless, during a 2018 appearance on the Sky programme A League of Their Own, he eventually came clean.
"Martin Keown is a liar because I saw him in front of me just, like, punching people so he didn't see anything," the World Cup winner said. "All of a sudden, I heard noises, and I thought, 'What's happening?' So I go out with my slice of pizza and I saw Sol Campbell, Rio Ferdinand, Martin Keown... everyone pushing each other.
"I was like, 'I want to get in, but I don't know how to', and I threw, just threw it. Once I saw it was hitting, like, who it was hitting, which I didn't mean.."
Later, while speaking to beIN Sports, he confirmed he had already apologised to Ferguson in person before indicating he wouldn't behave in the same way now that he is older. "I was young, I definitely wouldn't use a pizza now, I would get straight in there now!" he said.
In 2022, Fabregas provided additional insight into Pizzagate during an interview with ITV. At that point, he was approaching the end of his playing days with Monaco and would undertake one final campaign with Como in 2022/23 before transitioning into management.
"We were 49 games unbeaten. They were so competitive but they were very smart people. I was getting a lot of stick as well," he said when looking back on the Old Trafford loss. "I was very frustrated. You're warming up and didn't play. You're annoyed you lost. I just went in quickly to the dressing room and there was some food there, I was starving.
"I took a slice of pizza and we started hearing noises. The first thing that occurred to me was to throw the pizza because I didn't have the power or the courage maybe to go into that fight."
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