With the international break in full swing, it can be a time to discuss alternative issues to that involving the Premier League. So, I wanted to take a look at Thierry Henry’s career since leaving Arsenal for Spanish giants Barcelona. The 31-year-old has just started his second season at the club, but according to their sporting director, Txiki Beguiristain, he has ‘not looked convincing’ in a Barcelona shirt as yet.

Theirry - unconvincing?

Considering how influential and successful he was in Arsenal colours, this seems rather hard to believe. However, Beguiristain goes on. He says that Henry doesn’t look like he fits in the team at times and that his time in Spain has been dogged by ‘personal problems’.

Any fans in England will be wondering if Beguiristain is talking about the same player that scored 226 goals for Arsenal? Henry could do no wrong in England and was so often the match winner for Arsene Wenger’s side. In July 2008, the Frenchman was even voted the greatest Arsenal player of all time. So what has happened to him in Spain?

Well, it has to be down to a number of factors. First up, everyone connected with Barcelona possibly expected too much. When he arrived for just over £16m, there were thousands of fans ready to welcome him at the Nou Camp. They had pursued the striker for quite some time and now they eventually had their man – they wanted instant results. However, he didn’t grab his first goal until September and unlike Arsenal fans – who would rarely criticise Henry – the Barcelona fans were straight on his back.

In all honesty though, Henry’s first season in Spain was a poor one for everyone involved at Barcelona. There were no trophies won and finishing a rather staggering 18 points behind arch-rivals Real Madrid didn’t help proceedings. Perhaps as the club’s major new signing, Henry was made a scapegoat for their problems. In all fairness though, he still managed to score 19 goals to be the club’s leading scorer.

So, in terms of goals scored, Henry wasn’t too far off the pace. However, he simply hadn’t won the fans over. At Arsenal, everytime he touched the ball there was a buzz about the place and more often than not Henry delivered the goods. Quite simply, this hasn’t happened at Barcelona. Some sections of the media have even said that the Frenchman ‘lacks commitment’, something he had in abundance during his time in England.

I suppose part of the problem could be that he was played out of position a lot of the time. Barcelona’s boss last season, Frank Rijkaard, often played him on the left wing leaving him with numerous defensive duties. This isn’t the way to go with Henry. Yes, he hugs the left wing a lot when playing up front, but it is done without the need to track back.

The new season though has brought renewed hope for Barcelona and Henry. New boss Pep Guardiola even stated at the beginning of the new campaign that Henry would be his ‘main man’ as he looked to guide the club towards various honours.

So, has this been the case? Well, judging by the comments previously mentioned by the club’s sporting director – it would appear not. However, it has been said by the same man that Henry is ‘improving’. He is becoming a central part of the team and having much more of an impact on how Barcelona are playing. They have won their last four games and although Henry has only found the net twice – he is starting to stamp his authority on the team like many expected him to last season.

Barcelona fans will want trophies though and if they fail to deliver them, it is the likes of Henry that will unfairly get blamed again – no matter how well they may be playing.

Just finally for today, I wanted to throw a question your way – would you take Mr Henry back? That’s one to think about!

Article by Thomas Rooney – A sports writer who blogs about football betting

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The news breaking last night was that RVP has yet again picked up a hamstring injury in training ahead of Holland’s game against Iceland. People are saying it might be 4-6 weeks before he is fit or it might be next Wednesday.

RVP is injured yet again..

I have no idea, it was this time last year he picked up the injury that put him out all season. I have a feeling that this might happen again. RVP is plagued by injuries and like Rosicky, there seems to be no end to his problems. He has scored 5 in 6 games for us so it’s a bit of a blow, just when I thought he was getting a good run under his belt.

Apart from that, Roy Keane has been slating the Arsenal youth system, obviously with a bit of envy.

“The word on the street is they have a group of kids coming through that will be absolutely outstanding. But you go on about the kids coming through but a lot of them have been bought from other clubs, not through the academy at Arsenal. It’s the same with Chelsea.”

Keane has a motive - his main problem seems to be that because we are in the South East and have a large population within our radius we have a much larger resource base.

“We have tough battles up here in terms of signing young players and are restricted in terms of our location. You can only bring in kids from a certain radius and a lot of our radius is in the water. Any good fish out there?

Sorry Roy - it’s not our fault Sunderland is on the coast! We just stick to the rules and try to find the best quality young players we can get. How many top quality players will come through having played for one academy their whole youth?? I think this is just a case of jealousy from Roy, he wouldn’t be complaining if he was in our position!

WIlly Gallas has been talking recently about his inconsistencies this season. He has been under-par this year and his mistakes against teams like Fulham (click to watch highlights) have cost us points in the first 7 games of the season.

Great going forward, but is Gallas good enough in defence?

Gallas told L’Equipe:

“I can say we have not seen the Gallas from 2006 this term so far. In a few matches, I have not been so good. With the French team in Sweden and Austria, I was not very good at some moments.

“I would close my eyes if I would say I am strong. That would mean I don’t recognise I did have a few bad performances, as recently with my club against Hull City. Maybe I feel a little tired.”

“Do I experience the most difficult period since I joined Arsenal? We could say yes. Above all I miss consistency. One match is good, the other one is not so good. However, I am doing everything to get to my best again because I can’t accept not being in good form. I’m still young and have plenty of things to achieve.

He is a defender with good qualities, but Arsenal fans have been divided over him since he came to the club. He can play the ball fantastically and he has attacking qualities, but maybe he is best paired with a strong centre back.

There are quetions over whether Toure is the right man to partner him, and also over whether he is the right choice for captaincy.

ArsenalAddict suggests moving Djourou to CB and putting Toure as DM, this might work - Djourou is a tall, strong centre back, and Toure has the pace and style to play in midfield, but Wenger has already said he will not use Toure there.

I think Gallas will come good when he finds consistency, but we should be looking to replace him, not Toure, in the future.

I have a feeling Wenger will stick with them, he backed Gallas to be captain this season, but don’t be suprised if Silvestre gets a chance in defence as well as Djourou.

Related post: Vieira Backs Gallas

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It’s interesting to see how Wenger has changed the style of the club in the past ten years. During Wenger’s early years we were known as quite an agressive team with some quite volatile players. Now we are top of the fair play league.

Less passion?

The question I want to ask is are we fighting enough? Having seen Arsenal clean up their act over the last few years, we have also seen the trophies dry up.

Is our less agressive style costing us? Did anyone ever win trophies by being nice? I’m not sure, but although we play great football, maybe sometimes we lack a bit of passion for those smaller games which we have lost this season.

I’m not advocating dirty or foul play, I am just asking whether this represents a lessening of passion and desire to win in our team?

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Yesterday on ArseSpeak we mentioned that Silvestre had played his first game - for the Reserves. Silvestre started at centre-back as they beat Stoke City 3 - 2 at home.

Read the match report here at Young Guns.

Silvestre came through his first apperance well

After making his first apperance Silvestre told the press:

“I feel good, I got through the 90 minutes without any discomfort or pain and physically I felt at the same level as my team-mates so it felt good.

“The boss asked me if I wanted to play because it was a long time since I last played competitively, back in August or July with United. Before I get back with the first team it was good for me to play and get something other than training.

“It was a perfect run-out before playing with the first team. It is a good level in the Reserve League and getting to know my young team-mates was a good experience.

“It is not a surprise [to see how good the young players are] because most of the first team are 20, 21-year-olds so the quality is always there. I expected the same quality in the Reserves and most of them train with the first team so I knew them already.

“It is the way the Club is set up, everything is done to play good attacking football so the players enjoy it and you just have to make sure you give 100 per cent in the challenge because if you don’t get the ball you can’t play the nice football.”

It’s good to see SIlvestre back in action. He is a quality player - and although he’s getting on a bit - he has class and experience which may be important to the Arsenal team this year.

I believe that our chances of winning the League this year are diminishing - but there’s no way we are out of the race. Players like SIlvestre could make all the difference.

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There isn’t very much going on for the Arse at the moment. Internationals week is always pretty dull…

Fabregas is linked to Barca, as the press stir up rumours to sell papers while internationals are on. It’s a load of bollocks.

Silvestre and Bischoff have made their first Arsenal apperances - for the Reserves and thats about it really.

Also Ade isn’t playing for Togo now - he’s putting Arsenal first.

Have fun Gooners..

Have Arsenal learned from the Hull game? Probably not. Were we unlucky today? Yes.

Fabregas dramatically saves a point, but is it enough?

These are the answers you don’t want to hear, but I think it is true. Sunderland never really created much, but they had their chances. They kept at least 8 men behind the ball until the last ten minutes, and they managed to score a reasonably lucky goal - yet another wonder strike - which wasn’t defended against properly (click to watch).

However, Arsenal were extremely unlucky not to have scored earlier in the game, having a few good chances and RVPs goal disallowed.

We were then extremely lucky that Fabregas equalised with 90 seconds of added time remaining from RVPs corner. (Craig Gordon was completely lost).

That is how football works. I can say now that I am glad to have the point, after a hard fought wet, cold and windy away game in the North East.

Nevertheless we really can’t afford to drop points like this. I think Wenger will be extremely disappointed in the dressing room.

The main problem is - if you want to win the title, you have to beat teams like Fulham, Hull and Sunderland. Getting lucky decisions and grinding out results away from home is crucial and we aren’t doing it.

The full match highlights are here, click to watch them.

Arsenal Insider some good analysis here, he highlights Adebayor’s lack of consistency this season, and agrees with me, Arsenal haven’t learned from the Hull game..

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