"It's difficult to put into words what Highbury represented to me or any Arsenal fans"
Thursday 7 May 2020 10:13, UK
Arsenal legend Thierry Henry looks back on his favourite Highbury goals, including the flick and volley against Man Utd, the solo run against Liverpool and a special derby strike.
In an exclusive chat with Sky Sports' Jamie Redknapp on Thursday's The Football Show, Henry talks through five of his most famous goals at Highbury, Arsenal's home until 2006...
"It's difficult to put into words what Highbury represented to me or any Arsenal fans. I kissed the ground for a reason and at the time, people thought I was going to leave Arsenal and go to Barcelona and that's why I kissed the ground. I actually kissed the ground goodbye because I knew it was over. I was never going to play in my garden again. I was never going to see that grass early in the morning when we were in the meeting at 11am and I used to walk by the field and I would say to it 'see you later my man'.
"I had great memories there, bad memories although they were more good than bad. Everyone loves to play at Highbury. I don't know what it was. I never went back to see it, it's a flat development now but I refuse to go. It's too hard for me to see it like that. I know it's weird but there is nothing above Highbury for me. I played in a lot of stadiums, bigger stadiums, more beautiful stadiums in terms of the way it's been built or whatever but Highbury is Highbury and it always will be. Nothing can compete with Highbury for me."
Arsenal 1-0 Man Utd - October 2 2000 - Receiving the ball with his back to goal with Denis Irwin tight to him, a few yards outside the penalty area, Henry flicked the ball up before swiveling and volleying over France team-mate Fabien Barthez...
"I tried stuff like that in training, it would never drop and there were often times at the end of my career where I used to try stuff and when it wasn't working, they used to say 'what was that?' and they used to joke 'what are you trying to do?'
"But that was me, I always used to try stuff. People would call me cocky at times, call me arrogant, but I wanted it. I knew I could score goals. I used to do more difficult stuff than that in training to make sure I could do it in the game…
"It was so weird because I was behind Denis Irwin and it's something I always used to work on, I always used to put myself into the offside position because it is the most difficult thing for the defender. He didn't know if I was going to come from the right or the left but by the time he sees me, it's too late and because the frame of my body is big, if you look at it, he's bending to see where the ball is.
"Then, I felt like chipping it and following the ball but the most difficult skill in that goal was when I flicked it, the ball went a bit away so if I smashed it the way I was, that ball would have gone onto Holloway Road. But I knew I just had to cushion it a bit and make sure it was going to float over and the ball went in. That's the beauty of the game, you have to try stuff and entertain people and luckily enough, the ball went in.
"There's a story I want to tell you. I'm usually very respectful of all players, senior players and players who helped me develop. But I played with Fabien Barthez at Monaco, he was in the national team obviously and he was a mentor for me. He helped me a lot, going through a lot of stuff in my early days, and we had to go to the national team after that game.
"On the Monday, I arrive at the national team, we had training in the afternoon and the next thing you know, one guy goes 'Fabien, what happened on Saturday?' and I was like 'oh no, they're not going to put that on the table now because I have so much respect for that guy' and I basically walked out of the dressing room. I didn't want to talk about it because that's how much I respect Fabien Barthez."
Arsenal 3-0 Tottenham - November 17 2002 - Picking the ball up inside his own half, Henry paces to the edge of the Spurs box, shrugging off challenges, before striking into the bottom left corner with his left foot. Jamie Redknapp, playing against Henry, didn't get near him, and the Arsenal man ran the full length of the pitch again to celebrate in front of the travelling Tottenham fans...
"I'll tell you how my mind worked on the goal, which is very important because we do tend to forget that we have a brain. The best camera I have is my brain and on the Wednesday that week, we had played PSV Eindhoven at home and I made a way better run than the Tottenham one, but at the end, because of the way I am, I gave the ball to Freddie Ljungberg.
"On that one, when I took the ball and it bounced, I shielded it and I pushed it, Matt Etherington came back and I moved him away. And I was like 'I'm going alone. I don't care who is in a good position or not, I am going alone.' Then I dummied one defender, second one, and then I saw Dennis (Bergkamp). I was like 'oh man, it's Dennis' and I like to play the game the right way, but I had to finish that one and when you score, you're right and if you don't, you're wrong.
"So I put it in the back of the net, but I was thinking about the one during the week against Eindhoven and I gave the ball to Freddie and I should have gone alone."
Arsenal 2-1 Man City - February 1 2004 - Receiving the ball wide left from Robert Pires, Henry takes two touches before unleashing a fierce effort into the top right corner from 30 yards past David James...
"It's funny because those goals weren't my types of goals, those goals are more like Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink or Alan Shearer-type goals, when they used to aim at a spot.
"I don't know why I felt like it that day, I used to love to curve the ball and on that one, I just unleashed it and it went in. It's kind of weird because of my favourite strikes ever was the one I scored away at Upton Park when I flicked the ball over the defender and smashed it into the top corner. I think that's one of my best that I smashed away.
"Like I said to you, I felt so confident when I was playing at Highbury and because I knew where I was. When you play at a stadium, you know where you are. Your memory pictures it all the time. With the Fabien Barthez and Man Utd goal, I knew where I was, it was my stadium. I knew if that stadium is there, the goal is there although you don't even realise it, but your brain does know it and where you are. That's why you train and repetition creates habit so in that stadium all the time, I knew exactly where I was every single time on the field when I was at Highbury."
Arsenal 4-2 Liverpool - April 9 2004 - With Arsenal chasing the title and the score at 2-2, Henry picks the ball up 10 yards inside the Liverpool half, takes on Didi Hammann and then tricks Sky Sports' Jamie Carragher in the box before slotting bottom right corner...
"When you look at the goal, nothing makes sense because when you look at it, why am I there with Gilberto Silva when the ball is cleared out? Why am I there? I don't even know why. I don't even know what happened before. All I know is when the ball came, I saw the goal - that's all I saw.
"I told you that Highbury had a heart and that heart wasn't beating before that because Michael Owen scored before half-time and you could feel that the heart of the stadium wasn't going. When I watch my goals, I never really get goose bumps, but with that one even watching it now, I do get goose bumps because I can relive that moment through the goal when I felt the heart of the stadium going again, felt that stadium breathe again and I rarely felt it before like that.
"People forget that we had to play, in eight days, Chelsea, Man Utd, Chelsea and Liverpool. I didn't play against Man Utd, I sat on the bench and do you know how upset I was? People forget that.
"We collapsed in one half against Chelsea [in the Champions League quarter-final] and rightly so, they beat us, but we are only human. Those four games in eight days and we asked to see if they could change it but because they were Chelsea or Arsenal, an English team was going to go through so they didn't really move anything for us. So the calendar problem that people are complaining about now, we had it then. No one cried for us that we had to play four games in eight days."
Arsenal 1-1 Tottenham - April 23 2006 - With Tottenham 1-0 up and looking favourites to claim a Champions League spot ahead of the Gunners, Henry comes on and scores an equaliser with six minutes remaining, latching onto Emmanuel Adebayor's through ball and slipping past Paul Robinson. Arsenal eventually finished fourth, ahead of Spurs...
"I don't want to rub it in, but for me, the one that really mattered was Tottenham, because I understood the rivalry. I was on the bench for that game I remember Arsene said in the morning that I had been playing in too many games, we had Villarreal on Wednesday or whatever it was and he told me I wasn't playing against Spurs at the weekend.
"I said 'the last derby at Highbury playing against Spurs?' and he said 'Thierry, I need to give you a rest' and I'm like 'not against Tottenham at home for the last derby. I can't have that'.
"He said 'you're going to be on the bench, give me 30 at the end of the game' and I don't know if you remember that game, but Michael Carrick bossed the midfield. He outplayed everybody and played so well and they should have been one or two ahead at half-time.
"This is me saying this so they played really well. Then I came on and they pretended that they didn't see that we had stopped playing when one of out players was down and scored, then I levelled it. I don't know if I would have been able to live with myself if Tottenham had won the last derby at Highbury. That was also one that was very important for me."
