Is Henry Here Yet?

The news on Thierry Henry's loan deal at the moment is that it's been delayed again, this time due both insurance paperwork and also the date of his return to New York. The Red Bulls want him back in time for their pre-season training camp in Arizona on the 20th of February, but Arsenal are hoping to keep our old captain until at least the 26th so that he could play in the North London derby.

I hope this gets sorted out soon, because it sure would be nice to have Thierry available to play against Leeds on Monday in our F.A. Cup fixture. One can only imagine how amazing it'll be to see Henry walking out at the Emirates again, and if those behind the scenes would just hurry up and sort out the loan details then it could be a reality this Monday. I expect he'll slot in on the left of attack, where Gervinho is playing for the first team now. The match would be a good chance for him to regain some match fitness and hopefully it all works out.

Of course, anything to lift the spirits a bit is appreciated after our painful 2-1 loss to Fulham Monday. I wanted to wait a day or two to fully get over the loss before I posted lest I get on here and bash the team, because in reality there are a lot of factors that went into the loss.

One was of course the terrible, frankly biased refereeing. Full details are found in this excellent post on Untold Arsenal, and it confirms my feelings at the time that absolutely nothing was really being called correctly, and certainly nothing was called in our favour. To win a match with that sort of handicap is difficult.

It is possible however, and that's where the red card comes in. Up until then it looked like we might just be able to hang onto 1-0, but when we were reduced to ten men we were just spread too thin. Fulham were the hungrier side and certainly deserved to level matters, but I felt the second goal in stoppage time was harsh, especially considering how well we had played in the first half.

But that's just it isn't it? We played well for 45 minutes and then dropped off. It can certainly be attributed to fatigue, but as well it seems like perhaps that motivation was lost a bit, and we felt like we could once again just hang on for a victory. Well, we seem to be able to defend a 1-0 lead for 30 minutes or so, but certainly not for 60, and it showed. We really needed a second goal to put the game to bed, and when we didn't get it, you felt the equaliser was always likely, especially when we dropped our attacking and pressing tempo.

It's a lesson learned yet again for the lads, and not a lesson we're going to want to see repeated. It seems to me that we really need to start scoring more goals. The only time in the last 6 weeks that we've scored more than 1 in a game was when we grabbed the narrow 2-1 at Villa Park, and that certainly wasn't Arsenal at their most fluent. That seems to indicate a problem, and one that hopefully a two-week break for the first team will solve.

Well anyway, enough about Fulham. Other than the Henry news and reflections on the defeat, not too much is going on Arsenal-wise at the moment. Vito Mannone has joined Hull City on loan again till the end of the season. I'm not convinced by the Italian and hopefully he'll get some games and improve a bit, because after his performance in Greece in the Champions League, it's clear that improvement is needed. Aren't you so glad we now have Szczesny in goal? I sure am.

Till next time then, don't forget to check out our Twitter and Facebook pages. The former is updated more regularly and at the moment includes a link to an apparently leaked publicity photo of Thierry Henry in this season's kit. Check it out if you're interested! Here's hoping that loan deal finally goes through,

Fab 4