Arsenal legend Thierry Henry is likely one of the membership’s biggest ever gamers, scoring 226 objectives in 370 video games and successful numerous trophies throughout his eight years on the membership.
However whereas the Frenchman had such a profound impression on the membership, one among his former team-mates failed to pick out him in his Good XI – a staff made up of his favorite team-mates throughout his profession.
That is regardless of Henry appearing as a hero to the previous Arsenal participant in query, with Robin van Persie as a substitute most well-liked as the only centre-forward…
Arsenal hero selects Robin van Persie over Thierry Henry
“Henry was my hero however I performed way more with Robin, who made ending appear very easy,” Theo Walcott tells FourFourTwo. “Once you discuss gamers who’ve a wand of a left foot, he genuinely had that. He scored some iconic objectives and made my life a lot simpler on the suitable.”
In complete, Walcott performed with Henry for a yr and a half throughout the Frenchman’s two spells at Arsenal, although nearly all of that was as a 17-year-old.
Elsewhere in his staff, Walcott selects Joe Hart in aim, a again 4 of Bacary Sagna, Rio Ferdinand, John Terry and Ashley Cole, with the left-back serving to him settle in when he first moved to Arsenal. Although he spent the identical period of time with Cole, Walcott highlights how arising in opposition to him in coaching actually helped him to enhance.
“He taken care of me at Arsenal, I’ll always remember that, and he’s most likely the perfect left-back in Premier League historical past,” Walcott explains. “We regularly practised one-on-ones and it was troublesome to get previous him. I’d watch him do drills with Thierry Henry after coaching. Thierry used to say what he was going to do earlier than he did it, however Ashley all the time got here out on high in these battles.”
Additional ahead, Steven Gerrard and Wayne Rooney kind an attacking three-man midfield, with Cesc Fabregas sitting alongside Gerrard.
“Cesc simply knew what to do when he had the ball,” Walcott provides. “He performed the sport at his tempo, he was the conductor and he discovered from the gamers and managers round him. He’s since fed that into his teaching at Como.”
The participant he appears most impressed with, nonetheless, was Alexis Sanchez.
“Alexis was totally different – he got here to coaching with weights on his ankles and cherished to practise stepovers,” he says. “You couldn’t maintain him off the grass. He’d be taking pictures, taking pictures, taking pictures and the boss would maintain gazing him, however he’d assume, ‘No, I’m doing my factor’.”
:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25736845/2184954366.jpg?w=120&resize=120,86&ssl=1 "UFC 309 preview: 15 tidbits, info and storylines | Jones vs. Miocic")
