The Far From Anonymous Mr Henry

The scene is the Emirates Stadium, North London. Arsenal have just beaten Manchester United 2-1 with two goals in the last seven minutes to do the double over the Premiership leaders. On behalf of Sky Sports, Geoff Shreeves is interviewing a delighted Arsene Wenger. He asks whether Arsene would agree that in this game Thierry Henry was “anonymous”. There is a moment’s pause before the Arsenal boss patiently and courteously tries to educate Mr Shreeves to appreciate that, far from being ‘anonymous’, his captain worked extremely hard for the team, particularly when he did not have the ball, and there was also a little matter of scoring the dramatic winner in time added on.

Football, we are constantly being reminded, is ‘all about opinions’. Unfortunately it is in moments like this that we are acutely aware not only that all opinions are not equal, but that the gulf between the opinions of those who really know the game and those who at best only appear to do so is truly vast. Arsene Wenger’s calm demeanour and good manners cannot disguise the fact that he was obliged to give an interview to a man of limited intelligence and even more limited knowledge about the professional game.

Mr Shreeves is no doubt doing the best he can with modest resources, but his artless questions – most of which begin with “How” – reveal far too much of his own shortcomings and consequently too little of the feelings of the subject he is interviewing.

For the record, this game demonstrated that a refreshed and reinvigorated Thierry Henry is now once again a striker of world class – an inspiration, a goal scorer, a creator of goals for others, a maker of superb runs, a leader, an entertainer and, when needed, an effective defender from the front. As such he is regarded as invaluable by his manager, his team mates and legions of Arsenal fans – and capable of living with a little misunderstanding, even when it comes from people who should remain anonymous.