Fabregas, who became the Gunners youngest Premiership player at the age of 17 years and 103 days, was deputising for injured skipper Patrick Vieira in the heart of the defending champions midfield.

Wenger believes that the Spanish midfielder has the ability to push for a regular place in the starting line-up.

"Fabregas is only 17 but age is not important," said Wenger. "We had a 17-year-old and a 35-year-old in Dennis Bergkamp and they both showed that age does not matter.

"As long as you have intelligence and technique, then that is enough.

"Fabregas is mentally very hungry but he still a young boy physically, so we will have to protect him.

"However, the more they try to intimidate him, the more he comes back. He is good enough to be a regular now.

"It is about finding the right balance but I wanted to open the door for the young talent at the club.

"That is why I allowed the likes of Martin Keown, Ray Parlour and Kanu to leave."

The French manager was also pleased that his team could stretch their unbeaten run to 41 matches and even hinted that his team could attempt last season's heroics when the London outfit never lost a single game throughout the season.

 "We've only played one game, so it's very early but we'll try to do again what we did last season," explained Wenger.

"Last year, we wanted to play good football, go forward all the time.

"We won't change but how far can we go? I don't know but it was good to see us perform well without Patrick Vieira, Sol Campbell and Edu."