Streetlife Radio | The sound of waltham forest

If that last paragraph was a painful for you to read as it was for me, a Spurs fan, to write then you will be pleased to learn that the rest of this article is about the relative demise since Henry’s return to his beloved club.

Henry’s final appearance for the club in his first incarnation as an Arsenal player was 7^th March 2007. By March 2007 half of the invincible team of 2004 had moved on (Lauren, Campbell, Cole, Vieira, Pires and Bergkamp) leaving Henry as one of the team’s older statesmen; he had assumed the captaincy the previous season and was seen as the talisman.

Having been knocked out of the FA Cup in Round 5 at Blackburn and having sent a ‘second string’ team which lost to Chelsea in the League Cup Final in the space of the 10 days leading up to the game all attentions turned to the Champions League Round of 16 clash with PSV Eindhoven; trailing 1-0 in the first leg in The Netherlands Arsenal fancied their chances of overturning the Dutch champions. Henry, who had been struggling with injury for much of the season, was placed on the bench following a foot injury. Much had been written about Henry’s performances, fitness and more intriguingly his attitude throughout the season. In short it was felt that Henry had outgrown Arsenal and it was reported that he intimidated the younger players.

With Arsenal 1 goal ahead on the night Henry was called for to find the match winning second. Instead, Alex, now of Chelsea, headed PSV level with 7 minutes remaining. This was to be the final 7 minutes of Henry’s time at Arsenal (until 2012) and this earmarked a watershed in Arsenal’s fortunes. By the final whistle many Arsenal fans appeared to have dressed up as empty seats as The Emirates cleared as if a fire alarm had gone off. The game finished 1-1 and so PSV progressed at the expense of Arsenal who in the previous season’s competition had been beaten only by Barcelona in the final.

Their league form proved patchy with only 4 wins from their remaining 11 games and they subsequently finished 4^th below Liverpool. Henry was transferred to Barcelona in the summer for £24m, a small fortune for a 30 year old whose reliance on pace would be tested following significant muscle injuries.

The relative fortunes of Arsenal and Henry with Barcelona went in completely different directions. With the Spanish giants, Henry went on to win La Liga twice and the Champions League when Barcelona proved too good for Manchester United. Arsenal meanwhile got hardly a sniff of silverware, failing to finish higher than 3^rd in a Premier League now dominated by Manchester United and Chelsea, reach an FA Cup final and succumbing to the red devils in their only subsequent Champions League last 4 performance in 2009. Worse still for Gunners Henry furthered the exodus of their best players. Vieira had left in 2005; Pires and Bergkamp (retired) 2006; Henry 2007 and more recently Hleb and Fabregas (Barcelona) and more alarmingly Toure, Adebayor, Nasri and Clichy (Manchester City) have all decided that The Emirates was not the place to win medals.

Henry claims and it’s hard to disagree that he is now first and foremost an Arsenal ‘fan’ and that the opportunity to return on a short term loan was too good to turn down. Having witnessed the reception he received having been named as a substitute against Leeds United in the FA Cup last week and then the euphoria which greeted his winning goal it was easy to forget the changing landscape at The Emirates since Henry’s first spell in North London.

The 34 year old will remain with Arsenal until late February before he returns to New York for pre-season with his parent club New York Red Bull. What impact he is able to make is yet to be seen (this particular author fears with some trepidation what he might do in his final game against Spurs on 26^th Feb) but what is apparent is that the Arsenal Henry has come back to is almost unidentifiable with the one he knew, loved and gained iconic status with the first time around.

Arsenal’s fortunes during Henry’s first spell at the club:

Since Henry’s departure