HENRY - OPTA PREMIERSHIP PLAYER OF THE SEASON
Going into the final-day clash with Everton, Henry's team-mate and compatriot Robert Pires was topping the season-to-date Index, but two goals and an assist for the former Monaco hitman propelled Henry ahead of Pires in the rankings.
That took Henry's haul to 24 league goals and five assists in a hugely productive season.
It is not surprising therefore to learn that the galloping Frenchman fired more shots on target than any other Premiership player this season with 68 efforts fizzing towards goal in total.
The team spirit in the Gunners camp has been tremendous this season and Henry's performances on the pitch have epitomised this. Saturday's match against Everton provided a prime example, with Henry giving up the chance of a hat-trick to lay the ball into the path of Francis Jeffers, knowing how desperate the young striker was to score against his old club.
Henry has been doing that all season though and he certainly cannot be criticised for being greedy. On top of those five assists in the league, the Gunners forward has supplied 76 key passes - a pass that leads to a goalscoring chance - which is more than any other striker in the league. Indeed only Pires and Nolberto Solano conjured up more key passes in the entire division than Henry, highlighting just how effective he has been around the penalty area as well as inside it.
It is also worth remembering that Henry racked up such impressive figures in spite of missing a sizeable chunk of the action this season. The three-match ban imposed for his infamous confrontation with referee Graham Poll, coupled with injuries, meant that the Frenchman sat out 645 minutes of league action this term - the equivalent of more than seven entire matches.
And while his spat with Poll was an abiding memory of the campaign, Henry picked up just four yellow cards in the pressure-cooker atmosphere of the 2001-02 Premiership and was penalised for a foul only 36 times in nearly 3,000 minutes of play.
His form may have wavered in the weeks leading up to Saturday's swansong, but on the strength of his performances throughout the campaign Henry is a worthy recipient of the Opta accolade. He had already grabbed 15 goals in his first 12 Premiership starts this term by December 9, but despite this impressive early form it was only his last-day virtuoso performance that secured top spot on the Opta Index.
