Arsenal legend Thierry Henry is one of the club’s greatest ever players, scoring 226 goals in 370 games and winning countless trophies during his eight years with the club.
But while the Frenchman had such a huge impact on the club, one of his former teammates failed to select him for his Perfect XI – a team consisting of his favorite teammates throughout his career.
This despite Henry acting like a hero for the former Arsenal given player, z Robin van Persie instead preferred as the sole center forward…
Arsenal hero chooses Robin van Persie over Thierry Henry
“Henry was my hero, but I played a lot more with Robin, who made completing the game seem really easy,” says Theo Walcott FourFourTwo. “When you talk about players having the wand of their left foot, he really had it. He scored some iconic goals and made my life much easier on the right side.
In total, Walcott played with Henry for a year and a half during the Frenchman’s two spells at Arsenal, although most of that period came at the age of 17.
Elsewhere in his team, Walcott selects Joe Hart in goal, a back four of Bacary Sagna, Rio Ferdinand, John Terry and Ashley Cole, with the left-back helping him settle in when he first moved to Arsenal. Even though Walcott spent the same amount of time with Cole, Walcott highlights how facing him in training really helped him improve.
“He looked after me at Arsenal, I’ll never forget that, and he’s probably the best left-back in the history of the Premier League,” explains Walcott. “We practiced one-on-one a lot and it was difficult to overtake him. After training, I watched him practice with Thierry Henry. Thierry used to say what he was going to do before he did it, but Ashley always came out victorious in these battles.
keep moving forward Steven Gerrard AND Wayne Rooney they formed an attacking, three-person midfield, in which Cesc Fabregas sat next to Gerrard.
“Cesc just knew what to do when he had the ball,” adds Walcott. “He played at his own pace, was a conductor and learned from the players and managers around him. Since then, he has used it in his training in Como.”
However, the player who seemed to impress the most was Alexis Sanchez.
“Alexis was different – he came to training with ankle weights and loved to practice vaults,” he says. “You couldn’t stop him from playing on the grass. He was shooting, shooting, shooting, and the boss kept staring at him, but he was like, “No, I’m doing my thing.”
