Arsene Wenger delivered a stinging response to Thierry Henry after the French striker had claimed that he’d never seen or heard the Arsenal fans as angry as they were after the Gunners 2-1 defeat at home to Swansea. The Arsenal manager, however, seemed irritated with Henry’s remarks and noted that Henry would not have a clue about the average fan sitting in the expensive box seats.
in his weekly column with British tabloid The Sun, Henry had written about the extent of the Arsenal fan’s irateness, saying “I have never heard the Arsenal supporters as angry as they were at the Emirates on Wednesday night when their team lost at home to Swansea.”
“They were less patient than I have ever known, booed one of the manager’s substitutions and groaned every time a pass went astray or a tackle was lost.”
However, Wenger dismissed Henry’s assertions with his typical acerbic wit, tersely noting that Henry did not have a clue what he was talking about, saying “Thierry Henry has his opinions. He has not found the measurement of the fans' angriness, of 60,000 people, straight away. Because he sits in the best seats of the stadium.”
Henry nervous about North London derby while Wenger confident
Writing in his column for Sun, Henry continued “They have never had the chance to win the Premier League before and, apart from 2006 when they lost at West Ham on the final day, they have never threatened to finish above Arsenal. But as much as it pains me to say this, there is a real belief in this Tottenham squad that they can finally be the kings of North London this year.”
Henry referred to Chelsea’s transformation under Mourinho and drew parallels with Pochettino, saying “We used to have a similar situation with Chelsea. For a long time you could see in their eyes that they never truly believed they could beat Arsenal. But then Jose Mourinho arrived and things changed forever. Mauricio Pochettino has done an equally amazing job for Spurs and convinced everyone at the club that this is their time.”
Arsene Wenger however, naturally disagrees with his former charge, opining that Arsenal ought to be fine against Tottenham, saying “We now have to do 98 per cent of things right and then add the two percent of things that are down. Then we can rediscover our collective qualities and put even more effort in.”
The Arsenal manager also noted that a loss would not rule Arsenal out of the title race, saying “We want to win but mathematically you can call that as you want. It is a need [to win] but the results are so unpredictable that even the most gifted mathematician would struggle to find a model [to predict the title race].”
