When current fans think of the best player for Arsenal in recent years, they tend to give opinionated answers with players such as Samir Nasri, Cesc Fabregas, or Van Persie. All these players were brought in at a young age and have improved drastically under Wenger, with the first two leaving for Manchester City and Barcelona respectively, while the latter is now Arsenal captain. To think Nasri, Fabregas and Van Persie were all brought in at the age of 21, 16 and 21 respectively is amazing and shows exactly what Wenger is capable of producing in producing future stars. However, if you’re to mention the best player for Arsenal in recent years, you can’t run away from the fact that the real king of North London was King Henry himself, or Thierry Daniel Henry, former captain of Arsenal.
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Now if you’ve been a supporter for a long time of the Arsenal, you’d be shocked as to why people would even think the former three players are better than Henry, but with today’s fans – not only Arsenal fans – the only bit of knowledge they have of Thierry Henry is how he screwed over Ireland with his handball in the 2010 World Cup qualifying playoffs or the fact that he’s playing for the New York Red Bulls also tells these “fans” that he’s not good enough to play for Europe – time for a history lesson!
Probably Wenger’s best “creation” with youth.
Thierry Henry was brought in to Arsenal as a 22 year old for a fee around 11 million pounds from Juventus in 1999. Now, you might not think that was such a great deal seeing as he left in 2007 for 16 million pounds – a small 5 million pound profit, but by then Henry was a 29 year old and that 5 million profit was only 1% of the actual contributions he’s made for Arsenal.
Henry celebrating the title Arsenal had won, going unbeaten the whole season.
Henry was a winger when he arrived at North London and was soon converted into a striker to replace Nicholas Anelka. After failing to score in his first 8 games, he finally broke his duck, scoring an outstanding 26 goals in his first season. The following summer he proceeded to win Euro 2000 with France and finished his second season with the Gunners as top scorer. It was only in the 2001-2002 season and onwards, that Henry helped Arsenal become a powerhouse not only in England but also in Europe as he went on to win 3 FA Cups, 2 Premier Leagues – one in which Arsenal went the whole season unbeaten- and 2 Community Shields.
In his time at Arsenal, personal achievements weren’t far at all as Henry became the leading all-time league goal-scorer for Arsenal with 174 goals. He also won four Golden Boots and five Player of the Year awards. He improved himself as a player too, being a master of the dead ball situation, contributing headers, providing a number of assists – all this added to a player with world class finishing.
The best damn player the Premier League has ever seen.
Not impressed? This was a player who even United or Chelsea or Liverpool fans couldn’t help but admire – Henry was the modern day Messi; he was always in form. There was a point in time where Henry scored more league goals than Sunderland did in single season! Leaving Arsenal in 2007 with a goal scoring record of 226 goals in 380 games, he had a goal scoring average of 0.59. If you’ve read my article on Messi and Ronaldo, this goal scoring average may not be as impressive as theirs but this is the Premier League we’re talking about – it’s not dominated by two teams, so Henry’s goal scoring record is not bad whatsoever – of all his matches, he is destined to score 59% of the time.
In that previous article, I only took into account the goalscoring records of Messi under Guardiola and Ronaldo under Madrid, so if we take Henry’s prime into consideration from 2001 to 2006, he netted a total of 166 goals in 242 appearances which gives him an average goal % of 69% – once again, this is the Premier League. If we assess assists in that period too, we get an average of 71 assists in 242 appearances which is an average assist rate of 0.29 assists per game which isn’t bad at all for a striker – compare this to the current “best player in the world”, Lionel Messi who has racked up 78 assists in 297 games for Barcelona which is an average assist rate of 0.26 assists per game.
With the Champions League, Henry had won every single major trophy possible at the highest stage.
When leaving Arsenal, he cemented his place as an even bigger legend to the fans by making a “Farewell” video, where he saluted the fans and wished for the best in the future – he has even attended many Arsenal matches and is said to even watch the reserve games till today! If you think he left Arsenal because he couldn’t replicate his old form, hold on – he left for the current best team in the world; FC Barcelona. There he went on to win La Liga, the Copa Del Rey and the trophy which eluded him at Arsenal – the Champions League, defeating Man United which made it even sweeter for him, being a former Arsenal player.
Henry was a World Cup winner, EURO winner, Champions League winner, Premier League winner, La Liga winner, FA Cup winner, Community Shield winner and a Copa Del Rey winner. If you don’t support Arsenal, and can say Henry was the best ever, I respect you. If you think Rooney is better than Henry, then please wake up – Henry was never moody, he performed consistently each season and has won on the international stage. Right now, even at 34, he is dominating the MLS with world class performances. Henry, along with Zidane, are my all time favorite players and it’s a shame that their brilliant careers have been hindered on the international stage with Henry’s handball and Zidane’s headbutt, causing many of today’s fans not to acknowledge their otherwise, football brilliance. Nonetheless, Henry, will always remain the greatest player to grace the Premier League and I hope he returns to Arsenal one day, maybe to even manage them.
