A sizeable proportion of Arsenal’s season ticket-holders preferred to bask in the spring sunshine elsewhere than in the reflected glory of a one-sided win, and for a few worrying moments in the first half those that did turn up will have wished that their captain had stayed on the sidelines. Not that it was really leather-jacket weather, mind.

At one point Cesc Fàbregas’s afternoon appeared in danger of being over before it began when he was scythed down from behind by Stewart Downing, leading to a lengthy period of treatment that caused Arsène Wenger’s heart to skip a beat. From his seat in the directors’ box Sir Alex Ferguson, the Manchester United manager, by contrast, will have looked forward to the possibility of Arsenal being without their talisman for the first leg of their Champions League semi-final on Wednesday.

Fàbregas was taken out again by Gary O’Neil when he returned to the field, but shrugged off any lingering pain to score both goals as Arsenal strolled to victory. Middlesbrough played like a relegated team, going down to a tenth successive away league defeat with barely a whimper, and sooner rather than later they probably will be.

Arsenal coped admirably without Fàbregas when he was out for 3½ months with a knee injury, embarking on an unbeaten run that stands at 20 Barclays Premier League matches, but going to Old Trafford without him on Wednesday would have been a formidable challenge. The Spain midfield player’s contribution is not accurately reflected in the statistics, because these were only his second and third goals of the campaign, but if he continues to play in the more advanced role he has been filling in recent weeks, more will surely follow.

“I was worried,” Wenger said. “He told me it was the knee he had before and you don’t like that. But after the game he said the ankle is worse than the knee. The referee told me he \ played the ball, but it didn’t look it to me.

“Cesc gets sharper from game to game. He was out for three months and you can’t come back at your best straight away. Every player who plays in midfield needs to score goals.”

Ferguson will have learnt little, other than that Middlesbrough are unlikely to present much of an obstacle to United’s championship challenge when they visit the Riverside Stadium on Saturday. Wenger did take the unusual step of deploying Samir Nasri in a deeper central midfield role, but with Andrey Arshavin ineligible the Frenchman is likely to be shifted to the left against United, with Alexandre Song or Abou Diaby drafted in to strengthen the side’s spine.

“I thought Ferguson was coming to watch Middlesbrough!” Wenger said. “Or because we have good red wine in the directors’ box. He knows us and he will expect an exciting game between two teams that try to play.”

Middlesbrough did their best, without ever looking like adding to their pitiful collection of nine away goals this season, explaining why Gareth Southgate sounded a broken man with his side three points from safety. The visiting team’s only chance fell to Jérémie Aliadière, who shot tamely at Manuel Almunia just after half-time, leaving Southgate to complain that the first goal should not have stood.

Nicklas Bendtner was standing in an offside position, but a slick passing move deserved to be rewarded, while there was nothing wrong with Arsenal’s second as Fàbregas beat Brad Jones again, rounding the goalkeeper outside the penalty area before slotting the ball into the empty net.

“There’s no question it [the first goal] was offside and no question it was interfering with play,” Southgate said. “But we’ve got to look at the 90 minutes and didn’t do enough to get anything from the game.

“You can drive yourself crazy by looking at the fixtures and there’s no way of knowing who’ll get what from what. All we can think about is can we beat Manchester United next week. All we have to do is to beat the world champions.” Arsenal are better equipped for the same challenge.

Arsenal (4-2-3-1): M Almunia 6 - E Eboué 6, K Touré 6, M Silvestre 5, K Gibbs 6 - Denilson 6, S Nasri 6 - T Walcott 7, F Fàbregas 8, A Arshavin 7 - N Bendtner 6. Substitutes: J Djourou 6 (for Silvestre, 46min), A Diaby 5 (for Walcott, 69), E Adebayor 3 (for Fàbregas, 69). Not used: L Fabianski, B Sagna, C Vela, A Song. Next: Portsmouth (a).

Middlesbrough (4-4-2): B Jones 4 - A McMahon 5, D Wheater 5, R Huth 6, A Taylor 5 - G O’Neil 6, M Bates 5, Tuncay Sanli 6, S Downing 5 - J Aliadière 5, M King 4. Substitutes: A Johnson 5 (for King, 62min), D Digard (for McMahon, 73), M Emnes (for Aliadière, 87). Not used: R Turnbull, J Hoyte, Afonso Alves, J Grounds. Next: Man United (h).

Referee: C Foy Attendance: 60,089