Arsenal legend Thierry Henry is without doubt one of the membership’s best ever gamers, scoring 226 targets in 370 video games and profitable numerous trophies throughout his eight years on the membership.
However whereas the Frenchman had such a profound influence on the membership, one among his former team-mates failed to pick out him in his Good XI – a workforce made up of his favorite team-mates throughout his profession.
That is regardless of Henry appearing as a hero to the previous Arsenal participant in query, with Robin van Persie as an alternative most well-liked as the only centre-forward…
Arsenal hero selects Robin van Persie over Thierry Henry
Van Persie and Henry have fun (Picture credit score: Getty Pictures)
“Henry was my hero however I performed way more with Robin, who made ending appear very easy,” Theo Walcott tells FourFourTwo. “ Once you discuss gamers who’ve a wand of a left foot, he genuinely had that. He scored some iconic targets and made my life a lot simpler on the suitable.”
In whole, Walcott performed with Henry for a 12 months and a half throughout the Frenchman’s two spells at Arsenal, although nearly all of that was as a 17-year-old.
Walcott and Henry collectively (Picture credit score: Getty Pictures)
Elsewhere in his workforce, Walcott selects Joe Hart in purpose, a again 4 of Bacary Sagna, Rio Ferdinand, John Terry and Ashley Cole, with the left-back serving to him settle in when he first moved to Arsenal. Although he spent the identical period of time with Cole, Walcott highlights how arising towards him in coaching actually helped him to enhance.
“He sorted me at Arsenal, I’ll always remember that, and he’s most likely the most effective left-back in Premier League historical past,” Walcott explains. “We frequently practised one-on-ones and it was tough to get previous him. I’d watch him do drills with Thierry Henry after coaching. Thierry used to say what he was going to do earlier than he did it, however Ashley at all times got here out on high in these battles.”
Additional ahead, Steven Gerrard and Wayne Rooney kind an attacking three-man midfield, with Cesc Fabregas sitting alongside Gerrard.
“Cesc simply knew what to do when he had the ball,” Walcott provides. “He performed the sport at his tempo, he was the conductor and he realized from the gamers and managers round him. He’s since fed that into his teaching at Como.”
The participant he appears most impressed with, nevertheless, was Alexis Sanchez.
“Alexis was totally different – he got here to coaching with weights on his ankles and liked to practise stepovers,” he says. “You couldn’t hold him off the grass. He’d be taking pictures, taking pictures, taking pictures and the boss would hold watching him, however he’d assume, ‘No, I’m doing my factor’.”
