Touch of class

The FA Cup Semi-Final Arsenal v Manchester United 03 April 2004 Villa Park, 12.00 noon

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"Thierry Henry is the best player in the world at the moment," says the Arsenal captain Patrick Vieira. Henry finished as runner-up in both polls to Zidane, but if he continues in his current vein of form he should finally get his hands on those awards later this year.

Of course, by then Henry could have strengthened his case by winning the Premiership, The FA Cup, and the Champions League with Arsenal, and Euro 2004 with France. Do not scoff. Henry currently gives both club and country an almost unfair advantage.

The 26-year-old striker has been the star attraction in Arsenal’s pursuit of the Treble and their 29-game unbeaten run in the Premiership, scoring 30 goals and providing a steady supply of assists.

For the last six months the chorus of voices hailing Henry has grown louder and louder.

When he inspired Arsenal to a 5-1 win over Inter Milan in the San Siro last November, the next day an Italian newspaper carried the headline: ‘Kneel down before the King."

His former Highbury team-mate Emmanuel Petit believes there is something more celestial than regal about Henry: "For Arsenal, Thierry Henry has become their gift from God." How do you stop him? The Blackburn manager Graeme Souness believes he has found the answer. An AK-47.

Born in Paris, Henry was reared at Monaco and given his debut as a 17-year-old in 1994 by the man he calls his "spiritual father", Arsene Wenger.

A year later Wenger was gone and Henry was banished to the wing. He used his pace and directness to bloom out there as Monaco won the French title in 1997, and then scored 3 goals as France won the World Cup in 1998.

The inevitable big-money move occured when Juventus paid £8 million for him in January 1999. Henry was kept out wide, and even worse for him, used as a wing-back.

"I had to cover the whole flank, forward and back," he recalls. "That was very difficult for me, and I didn't enjoy it. In the end, it was too much of a problem for me. I'm not a defender, and I had to leave."

Arsene Wenger, now installed at Arsenal, spent £11 million to rescue his former prodigy after only eight months in Turin. To begin with, Patrick Vieira was more likely to laugh at than laud Henry.

"We took the mickey out of him because he missed so many chances," he says. He scored just twice in his first 17 games for Arsenal. "At the beginning I had to learn to play as a striker again," says Henry.

"When I had chances, I was putting the ball in the back of the stand, rather than the back of the net. When he first played me in the centre, a lot of people were asking what Arsene was thinking of. They have the answer now."

That answer so far is a Premiership title, two FA Cups, the Footballer of the Year and PFA Player of the Year awards, and a compelling case, supported by many of his peers, that he is now the best player in the world.

It is Henry’s flood of goals that have played a leading role in capturing all these gongs. In his first season he scored 27 goals before spending his summer holidays helping France win Euro 2000.

He managed another 22 in the 2001-02 season, before contributing 33 to Arsenal’s League and Cup Double campaign in 2002.

Last season he amassed 32 goals as Arsenal won The FA Cup again, but narrowly failed to defend their Premiership title.

In total, Henry has scored 142 goals for Arsenal and is on course to overtake Ian Wright as the club’s leading all-time scorer. But he enjoys giving so much more to the team.

"Don't get me wrong, as a striker it is important to score goals, but I don't see that as the main part of my game," he says. "I like to run around and set people up for goals."

"I feel great and I don’t see why you should leave if you feel great," he says. "People can’t seem to put it into their brains, but I am happy and that is all I wanted to be in my life. So why put myself in a difficult position? It’s easy to turn down Real Madrid when you see how happy I am on and off the pitch in London."