Henry's return is the stuff dreams are made of

It’s the fourth minute of Arsenal’s FA Cup match against Leeds and Andrei Arshavin has just fired over the bar after some neat play on the left hand flank. It’s the eighteenth minute of the game, and Arsenal have won a free kick near the edge of the box, which is floated in by Mikel Arteta. But Sebastien Squillaci can’t head the ball on target. Fast forward three minutes ahead, and Aaron Ramsey’s long-range drive just misses target as Leeds keeper Andy Lonergan is left grasping at thin air. Skipping forward to the last minute of the first half, Marouane Chamakh combined well with Ramsey for the Welshman to have a go at goal, but his shot was blocked, and Laurent Koscielny couldn’t steer the resulting corner home. [caption id=“attachment_179610” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=“Thierry Henry made a dream comeback. Clive Mason/Getty Images”]  [/caption] Two minutes after the restart, Oxlade-Chamberlain fires his powerful shot just wide of the far post. A minute later Chamakh’s effort is saved by Lonergan. Oxlade-Chamberlain and Arshavin feed each other in the 50th and 54th minutes respectively, but both shots are wide of the target. We’ve seen this before haven’t we? Arsenal boss possession and try to pass their way to the goal, only for every move to break down near the eighteen-yard box. Only this time, the game wasn’t breaking down. It was building up to something much, much better. Arsenal’s bench on the night had the usual peppering of youth in the form of Nico Yennaris, rookie keeper Damien Martinez and Japanese Ryo Miyaichi, while Benayoun, Ju-Young Park, Henry and Walcott provided the experience. Yes. Thierry Henry was on the bench, and tonight was going to be his night. One could’ve been forgiven for seeing the number of times the camera panned the audience on the night, because present in the stands to see ‘Titi’ back in Arsenal colours were Martin Keown, Les Ferdinand, David Beckham with his three sons and a rather surly-looking Samir Nasri, all who had come to see the legend take to the field on his return to Arsenal. His name was given a cheer that shook the dust from the Emirates rafters when it was announced, and the fans’ cheers reached a huge crescendo when Henry stepped off the bench and began his warm up, only to peak in a massive roar when the man who scored two hundred and twenty six goals — it’s a lot more impressive in words — stepped on to the Emirates turf alongside Theo Walcott, who grew up idolising the World Cup Winner. And it was obvious that the man had lost none of his former skill. His first touch was a deft pass to Mikel Arteta as he ran at the Leeds defence. And we all know what happened with his second and third touches of the ball. Alexandre Song picked out Henry with a pass that bisected the Leeds defence. Henry controlled the ball with his first touch, and planted home an exquisite finish with the second. And that goal which displayed so much va-va-voom made the Emirates Stadium go ga-ga. It rarely ever gets noisy at Ashburton grove but the roar made every Gooner jump up and down with delirious joy. Fans clad in scarlet and white were cheering themselves hoarse, their mirth dissipating the cold London air. They say actions speak louder than words, and as loud as the cheer may be, the biggest celebration of the night came from the man himself. Arms outstretched, Thierry Henry skipped gleefully to the sidelines in fiery emotion, thumping the cannon embossed with a shield and two wreaths on his shirt, geeing up the fans to scream even louder than they were, if it was even possible. He hugged Arsene Wenger in a fierce embrace, and the normally stoic Strasbourg native was beaming from ear to ear. The entire team — even Wojciech Szczesny who ran the length of the pitch — ran towards Henry in fierce jubilation, and if there was one moment this season that Arsenal fans would like frozen in a time capsule, it would be this. Twitter feeds began to light up rapidly with the hashtag Thierry Henry trending faster than Gucci’s latest Autumn-Winter collection, Facebook walls began to have five, ten, twenty, fifty people in a friends list posting about Titi. Joining in the e-celebration were Jack Wilshere who said “Typical Henry! I’m Buzzing!”, Robin van Persie went with “Thierry Henry is back!!!!!!!!!! TH get in there!!!!!!!”, Michael Owen said “He just has it doesn’t he? #Henry. Great couple of days for football fans. Scholes and Henry back in business. What a season this has been so far.”, while after the game, Aaron Ramsey said “It was written for him. What a finish! #buzzing” and Szczesny said “09/01/2012 I was there when Thierry Henry scored a winner vs Leeds on his #AFC comeback!!!”. Henry himself was comparatively more stoic, going with “I never thought I would play for Arsenal again, and I never thought I would score the winning goal tonight.” Andrei Arshavin told Arsenal.com that “The fans were excited about his comeback and were looking forward to seeing him on the pitch. Thierry is the best goal-scorer in the history of Arsenal. I guess he scored about 230 goals and gave numerous assists. It is not surprising that the fans were looking forward to seeing the man who let them experience the joy of victories in various competitions. All the newspapers, magazines and other media in the Internet devoted very much attention to his return to the gunners’ camp. It happened. The star is back and shining.” Henry was a lot more modest after the game, thanking Arsenal first team physio Tony Colbert. “You always think that (you can still do a job), but whether or not you do always remains to be seen,” the striker said. “I just said to Tony Colbert, ’look, you have to get me ready’, and he did. “I am nowhere near a 90-minute game but he did everything for me to be able to help. You are always going to get what you deserve if you work hard. That has always been my philosophy in the game; you have got to work hard. I would rather have the guy in my team who tries any day than the guy who doesn’t want to show up. That is my mentality.” That shouldn’t be a problem for Henry, because according to Laurent Koscielny, he trains like he is twenty. “It’s thanks to players like him that we all improve. He is one of the greatest players to have played football and the squad needs to look up to him in the next two months to improve. Maybe he has missed the atmosphere here, at the Club and the stadium. We can see at training that he plays like if he was 20 and as if he had just broken into the first team. He wants to score, to help the team and to improve.” If Henry’s magical return to the place he calls ‘home’ could be summed up succinctly, it would be in the words of Arsene Wenger who said, “He was already a legend here and now has added a bit more to the story.” The next two months see Arsenal take on Tottenham, Manchester United and AC Milan, and with Henry in their ranks, everyone will be giving the Gunners more than just a second glance. It’s gonna be an awesome eight weeks. Buckle up.