Arsenal - 4 Charlton Ath - 0:Thierry Henry was never likely to return with anything other than a bang, and so it proved last night. Having kicked his heels on the sidelines for eight matches, the striker offered an immediate reminder of his qualities as he helped to overwhelm 10-man Charlton by scoring one penalty, earning another and setting up the goal in between with a perfect pass. If this was Henry working off the rust, pity the defences that will have to face him when he is back to peak sharpness.
After a gentle start, Henry was at the heart of a one-sided contest and might have had a hat-trick. A goalline clearance and save by Scott Carson, one of several by the Charlton goalkeeper, helped to deny him that, but it was academic. Any hope of a close match had disappeared just before the half-hour when Osei Sankofa was sent off for pushing Robin van Persie and Henry tucked away the spot-kick.
Charlton finished without testing Jens Lehmann and remain deep in trouble, six points off safety with an inferior goal difference. They had known the game was up long before Henry had his shirt pulled by Souleymane Diawara in the box and stepped aside to allow Van Persie to score the penalty.
The Dutchman completed the scoring by beating Carson from a Mathieu Flamini pass. "Pardew what's the score?" chanted Arsenal's fans.
There had been an intriguing subplot with Arsene Wenger and Alan Pardew going head-to-head for the first time since their spat on the touchline at Upton Park almost two months ago, when Pardew enjoyed a 1-0 win over Arsenal towards the end of his time in charge of West Ham.
The managers needed to be separated then after Pardew celebrated a winner by Marlon Harewood, and the confrontation led to a fine for Wenger.
Pardew opted for a 4-5-1 set-up here to stifle Arsenal and it took the home team almost half an hour to take the lead. Though there was an early burst during which Arsenal came close to scoring five times in the space of two minutes, for the most part they had not threatened much.
There was no real sense that an Arsenal goal was inevitable as the half wore on despite that rash of opportunities which most notably saw a Philippe Senderos header cleared off the line by Bryan Hughes and Henry hit the foot of a post with a header from a cross by Cesc Fabregas.
But the opening penalty came when a long ball worked for the home team, as Kolo Toure's lofted pass was headed by Talal El Karkouri into the path of Tomas Rosicky. His pass picked out Fabregas and the Spaniard's shot from the edge of the box was deflected on to the bar via Djimi Traore's challenge. Van Persie was accelerating towards the ball when he was pushed by Sankofa and the referee, Mike Riley, deemed that the denial of a clear goalscoring opportunity and sent off the 21-year-old right-back.
Having scored the penalty, Henry embarked on an elaborate celebration, running to the technical area to high-five a somewhat bemused Wenger before indulging in a choreographed dance with the injured Emmanuel Adebayor, who had been sitting on the bench.
Henry soon had a free-kick well saved by Carson before his beautifully weighted return pass to Justin Hoyte from near the edge of the penalty area allowed the Arsenal right back to neatly clip a shot into the far corner for his first goal for the club. It was the first Premiership goal by an English Arsenal player since Sol Campbell scored twice against Everton in September 2005.
Guardian Service
ARSENAL: Lehmann, Hoyte, Toure, Senderos, Clichy, Hleb, Fabregas (Denilson 82), Silva (Flamini 70), Rosicky (Aliadiere 77), Henry, Van Persie. Subs not used: Almunia, Djourou.
CHARLTON ATHLETIC: Carson, Sankofa, El Karkouri, Diawara, Traore, Rommedahl, Hughes (Fortune 32), Faye (Kishishev 77), Holland, Ambrose (Thomas 63), Marcus Bent. Subs not used: Myhre, Hasselbaink. Sent Off: Sankofa (29). Booked: Diawara.
Referee: M Riley (West Yorkshire).
