Henry tops them all

13 April 2012

As if to provide us with a timely reminder of his status in the galaxy of great marksmen, Thierry Henry produced a quite stunning goal to ensure Arsenal's return to the top of the Premiership.

In what turned out to be a parade of past, present and future Arsenal goalscorers, it was the present-day hero who stood head and shoulders above the rest at rainswept Highbury yesterday.

Nicolas Anelka, Arsenal's top marksman in 1998-99, represented the past and, as hero turned villain, drew ironic jeers from the 38,000 crowd when he was sent off two minutes from the end of an absorbing match.

At 20, new signing Jose Antonio Reyes represented Arsenal's future and showed enough in his 20 minutes on the pitch to suggest that a prospective outlay of £17million may be money well spent.

"There's no question about his talent," beamed Arsene Wenger after Arsenal's 2-1 victory over Manchester City. "The only question concerns how well he adapts to English life and football here. The first six months can be difficult but the signs are positive. This boy was playing at 16 in Sevilla's first team, so he is used to pressure."

Reyes, whose parents will be joining him in London shortly, will make his full debut tomorrow when Arsenal visit Middlesbrough and attempt to overhaul their 1-0 deficit from the first leg of the Carling Cup semi-final.

Sadly, he won't have the benefit of the incomparable Henry alongside him. Yesterday the elusive Frenchman provided Reyes' first scoring opportunity in an Arsenal shirt - -David James saved well - - and later praised the Spaniard for creating a goalscoring opportunity for him.

Wenger knew that it wouldn't be an easy introduction for Reyes - - a greasy pitch, driving rain and defiant opposition sliding towards the relegation zone.

Having failed to win in their previous 11 Premiership matches, City packed their midfield hoping that the pace of Anelka would be enough to secure Arsenal's first league defeat of the season. It wasn't.

An own goal by Michael Tarnat, as he tried to prevent an Henry cross reaching Freddie Ljungberg, gave Arsenal the lead and then, in the 83rd minute, the Frenchman scored one of the goals of the season, much to the annoyance of Kevin Keegan, who felt that his team should have been awarded a free-kick just moments before.

The City manager had cause for complaint when referee Alan Wiley ignored Robbie Fowler's tumble. The validity of Sol Campbell's challenge was debatable but Fowler was still sitting on the pitch when goalkeeper Jens Lehmann began the move that flowed, via Edu and Robert Pires, to Henry on the angle of the City penalty box.

Wide on the left, he worked the ball on to his right foot and bent a 20-yard rising drive past James into the far corner of the net. "You can't legislate for goals like that," shrugged Keegan.

It was all over. Or so we thought. Two minutes from time a Ray Parlour pass was intercepted and gave City the chance to launch an attack that provided Anelka with his 11th Premiership goal of the season.

As he tried to relieve Ashley Cole of the ball to re-start the game, the two became embroiled in a needless shoving match. Referee Wiley sent off Anelka and Cole was lucky to be merely booked. Anelka later claimed he'd been elbowed.

"Nicolas takes some severe punishment, but I've never seen him retaliate," said Keegan. "Something happened that made him angry."

Wenger said: "The referee was close to the incident and made what he thought was the right decision."

It was a shame that such a hardfought game should end with the referee flourishing a red card, even though, with just two minutes remaining, it had no bearing on the result.

"We're unbeaten in 23 games and we're still on course," smiled Wenger. "I'm very proud of the consistency my players have shown this season."

If they keep it up they could top Manchester United's Premiership record of 29 unbeaten matches over two seasons, set between December 1998 and October 1999.

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