Monday 19 January 2015 13:45, UK
"The best team just got better"
Thierry Henry made his debut as a Sky Sports analyst on Super Sunday and he enjoyed what he saw as his beloved Arsenal saw off Premier League champions Manchester City 2-0 at the Etihad Stadium.
Take a look back at what he had to say about the main issues coming out of the game...
HENRY ON… HOW ARSENAL’S NEW APPROACH SAW THEM WIN AT MAN CITY
They defended well as a unit and they were brilliant. At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter how, if you have the ball or if you don’t have the ball like they didn’t have it today, but the 34% that they had in the game was enough to win the game.
Tell me when was the last time you didn’t see a Man City side here not even having a chance to score? I know they had some shots on target but they were not great opportunities so they can do it, hopefully they can carry on doing that more.
What I am happy about is when you saw that Arsenal side, they played well as a unit. It wasn’t so much about the ball, it wasn’t so much about skills, but you can also play well the way they played, they were just playing as a team. There wasn’t anything to do for Man City today and you sensed that right from the start.
At the end of the day they could have lost today but I think that people wanted to see commitment, desire and togetherness and today that was there. I think as long as you show that to the fans and you lose a game, they’ll go ‘oh, the team was better than this’ but before they were just allowing teams to roll all over them. That wasn’t the case today.
HENRY ON…WHY SANTI CAZORLA MUST PLAY IN THE MIDDLE
What a game Santi Cazorla had. When he is playing in the middle, you can see what he can do and what he has done today. I liked everything, even the way he talked at the end, he just said to everybody straight away ‘that’s how we have to play the next game’. That speaks volumes about the spirit of the guy, but he controlled that midfield. To come and play the way he played here at the Etihad is just outstanding; he doesn’t give up.
I said before the game people were focusing on Sanchez because he, at the moment, is the guy that makes the team click. I would say he didn’t have a great game today but they won, they won 2-0.
Cazorla is exactly like what you saw today, always smiling. I like the fact also that he was trying to calm people down when they were under pressure, he put his foot in but again it was very important for him to be in the middle. It is a different story when you have to play out wide, I don't think he has the body and the legs required to be out there. Once you are in the middle you can play off someone and not being far from everybody in terms of pressure, he can do that all day; he didn’t even look tired at the end of the game.
HENRY ON… THE VALUE OF A DEFENSIVE MIDFIELDER
Francis Coquelin had a very good game and I want to say something about Per Mertesacker. When you have protection the way he has been protected today, I didn’t see him suffer once in any challenge - and he had to deal with Stevan Jovetic, Edin Dzeko, David Silva… Once you have the protection that is required to play away from home against the champions then he can look like the player he was there today.
I think that Coquelin can do the job easily, you just have to be disciplined. If you play in the position that Graeme Souness played, then if you are a centre-back or a right-back you always have protection and it becomes an easier game, as we saw today. They can always score goals, we know that with Arsenal, but I do think that the guys that played this afternoon can do it, it’s just up to them to show it every time now.
For me it is always about desire. They played 4-1-4-1 and Coquelin could have gone forward and Cazorla could have gone forward, but they didn’t. I don’t know why they were doing it before or what the situation was, but Coquelin understood today you have to stay there. Aaron Ramsey and Cazorla were tucking in and it’s do-able. They just allowed them to go around the wings and they were pretty happy to defend that.
HENRY ON… ARSENAL’S TOP FOUR CHANCES
Can they carry on? That’s vital. They are still behind United and Southampton and they still are out of the top four, so they are going to have to make sure that they can do that against big teams more often. I know everybody was waiting for the first win [against a big team away from home] and they have had it now and now they have to repeat it. As Cazorla said, they have to do the same thing the next game and they have to carry on but Arsene used a word that I liked, they controlled the game but in a different way, not maybe the Arsenal way but they still controlled the game and it is impressive.
I watch every game like you guys and I don't know when the last time when you would see an Arsenal side look like they were not going to concede a goal. They didn’t look like they were going to concede.
HENRY ON… MAN CITY’S HOPES OF SILVERWARE
I think they missed Yaya Toure today. He could have been the guy from midfield to burst and try to play the usual one-two that he does and bring some power into the game. But how many times have we said Man City are out of it and somehow at the end of the season they manage to do it? The game at Stamford Bridge is going to be a massive one, they have to win.
You can always say, like we all said at the beginning, they’ve been unlucky, they were in a tough group in the Champions League, they played Barcelona, they played Bayern Munich but at one point you have to beat them. You have to show everybody that you can have actually have a run. You have to show that you can beat Barcelona for example. Now you have to make sure that you can actually beat Barcelona or Real Madrid. I’m not saying winning it, but why not? But I am saying you have to show that you can compete against those teams.
I think what they are trying to say, we are all trying to use the word progression. Like winning it, I don't know if they can win the Champions League now but can you progress?
One last thing, I do believe for example that Man City home and away can knock Barcelona out. Are they going to do it? We don’t know but they have to show progression.
