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1 year on – Henry vs Leeds
By Tom Humphrey
In January 2012, the King came home. Thierry Henry made an emotional return to Arsenal Football Club on a short-term loan deal as he tried to stay fit for the new MLS season. Whilst his New York Red Bulls team had finished their season, Arsenal were half way through theirs. With Gervinho and Marouane Chamakh off to the African Cup of Nations later that month, Arsene Wenger needed cover up front.
Thierry Henry came back to Arsenal to train in December 2011 and the idea was put forward by Wenger that Henry would come back on loan in January. Arsenal and the Red Bulls worked out a deal and on January 6th 2012, Henry was back in an Arsenal shirt, joining on a 2 month loan deal.
Henry was on the bench 3 days later as the Gunners hosted Leeds United in an FA Cup third round tie. Arsenal struggled to create opportunities and with 22 minutes left, the crowd were given the lift they needed. Thierry Henry replaced Marouane Chamakh looking to write the perfect script.
The man everyone came to see and everyone wanted to score didn’t disappoint. Fears that Henry was completely past it and would ruin his legend were quickly dismissed 10 minutes after he came on. Alex Song supplied a perfect ball for Henry and the Frenchman rolled back the years to add goal number 227 to his Arsenal tally, making it an even harder task for anyone to succeed him as the club’s record goalscorer.
Henry celebrates his winner against Leeds a year ago today.
The great man delivered a great moment once again for the Arsenal fans. He thought he scored the final goal of a 7-1 win over Blackburn last season before the dubious goals panel took it away from him and in his last appearance for the club in the Premier League he netted a late winner against Sunderland in February 2012. So at the moment his goal record stands at 228. There was talk of Henry returning once more this winter, but that talk has now been dismissed by Arsene Wenger. Whilst the MLS offseason continues though, Henry continues watching the team he loves, Arsenal and he continues to train with the team too.