Let’s get it out there. Henry cheated. No-one’s arguing against that. Not even Henry himself. A blatant handball/double-tap to keep the ball in play and spoon it (quite brilliantly) to William Gallas, who, take nothing away from him at least, is always in these positions to score.

What is also being glossed over is that the Irish had five chances to put that game to bed. Yes, you can be the better team all you like, but if you don’t put teams like France, Italy or Germany away while you can, you will pay for it, rightly or wrongly, fairly or not.

Calls are justified for video-technology after that. People *cough Myles Palmer cough* who claim they knew ‘immediately’ that it could only be a handball are deluding themselves. It’s impossible for the naked eye to see what happened in real time. So the referee missing it on first glance is actually excusable. Our ire against what Henry did is mostly fuelled by the luxury of slow-motion television replays from all sorts of angles being shown again and again and again.

There is only one thing to learn from this whole debacle (and Eduardo’s furore): Never, ever wrong a British (or Irish) team. The crying will never stop.

Now one of, if not the greatest player to ever grace an Arsenal side is being labled as a cheat. Not just ‘he cheated once’. A ‘cheat’. Permanent, indelible, forever. A cheat.

Browsing the comments on several Arsenal blogs, the Irish contingent who claim to be Arsenal fans are now disowning the King of Highbury.

Since WHEN does International football supercede the club game in the modern era? If  I would put the clod-hoppers and s***-kicker teams like Australia and South Africa (my dual nationality) over the one team I have more love for than almost anything else, I would be kidding myself.

You can go on about how the Irish flavour and colour is now lost to the World Cup, but if that were so, the last World Cup must have been a real downer. Right?

Yes, what Henry did was inexcusable, and I cannot defend the indefensible. But not too long ago, many collumnists were writing about the professional footballer doing everything he can to ensure victory. At all costs. About managers who would tear strips off players if they did not fall to ground when the opportunity came.

That’s what Henry did. That’s what anyone would have done, if a place in the World Cup was at stake. If Ireland are so passionate about that place, they would have done the same thing.

Sentiments shared by Myles Palmer, who surely now must have set a new standard in cretin-dom. In a full-blown tirade, he backs the Irish ‘heroes’ (read: Division-one standard team who cannot finish five guilt-edge chances where this wouldn’t be an issue) against the ‘cheating scum’ of Henry.

What the hell? After all this man did for Arsenal? After all he did to bring the English game to millions upon millions of fans worldwide?

After teams like Portsmouth, Charlton, etc literally applauded him off the field despite laying waste to their defences?

All that goes out the window now because a non-continental side got wronged? Cry me a river!

We’ve been down this road before with Eduardo – how a non-UK (I’m throwing the Irish temporarily into that group for now) player will get torn to pieces by the media for less-than-wholesome transgressions. Players like Rooney, Gerrard, et al constantly dive and commit gamesmanship without even a whisper of criticism.

Similar things have happened against France. Against Arsenal. Heck, even against Australia in 2006 when Grosso dived to win a penalty in the 94th minute. So many fans, naive and new to the darker side of football that year, screamed bloody murder at the inhumanity of it all. Some went as far to say that if that hadn’t happened, Australia would have won the World Cup because they would have been in Italy’s place in the final. I tell no lie.

And of course, the only people who remember that incident are the Australians. In England, it’s unknown. In Italy, it’s forgotten. And if Henry (or any player) had done that to a team like Slovenia, Greece, even as big as Portugal or Russia, I would bank on the fact the furore would not be nearly so audible.

Ryan Babel dived to win a penalty for Liverpool in an otherwise fantastic game against Arsenal in the Premier Champions  League. The commentors chose to focus on some imagined contact Toure made on the Dutch forward, and the ‘GREAT penalty!!!!’ that Gerrard smashed home. Perhaps because of the implied Franco-phobia flying around, it was never mentioned how Arsenal were robbed that day. Just as much as Ireland have been robbed.

I don’t think Eduardo is a cheat. But he did cheat. He cheated in an isolated incident that has yet to be repeated and previously, not even the merest hint of it came as a forewarning.

The same can be said of Henry. Before tonight, he had a glittering, staggeringly brilliant career, with the only complaint against him being his earned-arrogance. His Gallic shrug, his realisation that, at one point at least, he was indeed the world’s best.

That image to me will never be tarnished. If Irish Arsenal fans choose to disown the greatest Arsenal goalscorer in history after one incident that never remotely had anything to do with Arsenal, go and support Ireland.

Leave the club and Thierry Henry’s forever-unblemished Arsenal record alone.

Oh, and if anyone forgot about the existence of a little club called Arsenal, Kieran Gibbs’ injury isn’t nearly as bad as first feared, while Eduardo has signed a new contract! Hoorah!

Right. Comments. Respect the blogger, and watch the language. I’m happy for you to have your say and disagree with me (or agree!), but I’m not going to put up with any abuse. Now get to it!

Filed under: Arsenal, Blogging