The Arsenal legend provided a crucial winner against Sunderland on Saturday, but fans will wish he was available for the Tottenham Hotspur clash.
The three goals Thierry Henry has scored in his short spell is more than the combined total of Arsenal’s reserve strikers all season.
Marouane Chamakh and Park Chu-Young have netted just once between them, although the latter has only had severely limited opportunities.
Nevertheless, Henry’s fleeting spell should raise concerns with fans as much as it does nostalgia.
If the Gunners are to sustain a Champions League campaign and a battle to finish fourth they need one of those strikers to step up to help Robin van Persie.
Of course, winger Gervinho is to still come back, and Oxlade-Chamberlain has been a revelation, but Henry’s return has highlighted one of the side’s biggest problems.
When he scored on his return against Leeds, his loan spell was set up to be the perfect start to an inspired Arsenal winning run.
But he was unable to prevent the Gunners slipping to defeat against Swansea and injury kept him out of a showpiece game against Manchester United.
So goals against Blackburn and Sunderland have salvaged his loan spell from being more than ‘that Leeds moment’, but the New York Red Bulls
refusal to extend his loan is a disappointment for the club.
February 26 was destined to be the date where Henry signed off with a winner against rivals Tottenham Hotspur which brought the sides level on points.
Instead Arsenal have slipped up over the past month while Spurs have disappeared further out of sight.
So ‘perfection’ it was not, but with Arsenal having to re-adjust their targets accordingly, Henry’s matchwinner against Sunderland was as much as they could have wished for.
The two points earned could prove crucial at the end of the season.
He can add to his legend against AC Milan in midweek, but beyond that, he will soon be just a memory.
Robin van Persie cannot do it all on his own between now and the end of the season.
It will be time for his teammates to step up and prove their worth.
Otherwise it will have all been for nothing but the memories.
image: © wonker
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