Dubai // Thierry Henry said the current Arsenal team has what it takes to win the league if they can avoid any further injuries, and if they can shake of the expectations that comes with being one of the top clubs.
“The main thing was that Chelsea and Man City were winning,” he said while in Dubai on Thursday. “Obviously, because we didn’t win the league for a long time people are always questioning that. Before it was about silverware, and now that we won the FA Cup back to back, it’s ‘you didn’t win the league for 10 years’. And if we win the league, ‘you didn’t win the Champions League’. That’s the way it is because it’s the type of team Arsenal is. But at the end of the day only one team can be champion.”
Henry was speaking at an event held at Sun & Sand Sports shop in Dubai. The former Monaco, Juventus, Arsenal and Barcelona player is a brand ambassador for Puma’s #LegendChallenge and met the winners of the competition.
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According to Henry Arsenal are finally competing with the big-spending clubs such as Chelsea, Manchester City and Manchester United, and can win the league if they maintain their impressive early season form.
“Yes they can” win the league, “they are there and thereabouts, and hopefully they can this year,” Henry said. “But it’s a weird league this year, you can’t call it. I think they can carry on what they are doing, carry on that momentum, who knows? If [Mesut] Ozil carries on performing like he is, and the guys are doing what they’re doing around him, and we know Alexis Sanchez can be that guy also for us.”
Despite another long injury list, Arsenal are currently in second place in the Premier League table.
“At the moment we are in a good situation,” Henry said. “I’d rather be there than where the other teams are.”
The key reason for Arsenal’s challenge, according to Henry, has been the emergence of Theo Walcott as genuine rival to Olivier Giroud, who the former player has in the past insisted is not adequate enough to lead the line capably as the club’s lone frontman.
“I said what I said about Giroud last year and everybody went mental,” he said. “It was nothing personal, I said it many times; he’s great striker but I thought Arsenal were missing another type of striker. You can’t be the only one there, you need two or sometimes three. And Theo came along, doing extremely well and suddenly they are sharing the load of goals.”
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