Henry primed for United test

Thierry Henry was a bit worried while walking in London recently. A man kept staring at him but said nothing. What made the scene more bizarre to this Frenchman abroad was that the voyeur appeared to be a respectable businessman, dressed in a sharp suit and briefcase.

"I thought to myself, `This guy is strange'," recalls the softly spoken Henry. It was an impression which did not diminish when the man started undoing the buttons on his shirt.

But Henry was even more surprised by what happened next. "He undid his button and underneath pointed to the Arsenal shirt he was wearing. He didn't even talk to me. He just showed me the shirt and walked off.

"It was incredible because the guy was in a suit with a briefcase. In France some fans don't like to put on the team shirt to see the game." Since arriving at Highbury in early August Henry has been adapting to life in his new domain. Not only is the 22-year-old coming to terms with just how close to their hearts the supporters hold Arsenal, but his English and his goalscoring are in a race to see which will become fluent first.

At the moment Henry, with six goals in his last seven league games, is doing his talking on the pitch. What makes that statistic so fascinating, however, is that the Thierry Henry bought from Juventus for Stg £10 million on a five-year contract six months ago was a winger, good enough to win a French league title with Monaco and a World Cup with France.

But Arsene Wenger is a man who forgets nothing. Having seen the teenage Henry advance through the Monaco youth ranks as a striker while coach there, the Arsenal manager decided that his one-time protege would make the ideal replacement for Henry's fellow countryman and friend Nicolas Anelka in the middle of the Gunners attack.

On Monday Henry faces the ultimate Premiership test of his new role. With Dennis Bergkamp injured, Davor Suker suspended and Nwankwo Kanu on international duty, the rookie forward is likely to be handed the responsibility of playing lone striker at Manchester United in a game from which Arsenal must take at least a point to retain any meaningful hopes of winning the league title.

Wenger may give him a makeshift partner, but either way the weight is on Henry's slender shoulders. Thankfully for Arsenal the test has come at the right time. "At the beginning of the season I played the first half against Liverpool as a striker and was rubbish," he says honestly. "The boss put me on the wing for the second half. But I came on against Southampton as a striker and then played against Derby and that was when everything started to work well." It has been a long process reawakening old memories. Henry was a striker for 10 years until he was 17. "Arsene Wenger said before he signed me at Arsenal that he wanted me to play as a striker again and I could have said no. But I wanted to play for Arsenal and no one knows me like him, so I said OK.

"He convinced me I would score as a striker because of my pace and there are not so many players to beat to get to goal as there are on the wing. The most difficult thing was to remember not to come too deep to get the ball. I have to stay nearer the last defender to make the run.

"When you play on the wing you have to come back and you touch the ball more. So in the beginning as a striker I came back because sometimes I wanted to touch the ball more." The relearning process included asking defenders what they do not like from strikers. "I asked Martin Keown and he said making runs behind him. If you come too deep defenders are happy because they can see you.

"So I have to keep that in my mind and remember it all the time. When you play four years on the wing you get used to certain things and when you have to change it's not easy. But now it is more instinctive." Henry not only picked Keown's brain but worked after training with Wenger and even studied matches on television to see how strikers moved and which positions they took up.

His dedication to the task offers ample evidence of the personal qualities which have always attracted Wenger. The Arsenal manager tried to sign him after the last World Cup but Juventus had first option. Wenger was as patient then as he has been with Henry's re-education as a striker, trusting that it would work out in the end. "He has pace and dribbling power and makes things happen," says Wenger. Those qualities have been in ample evidence of late.

Henry admits that he has also been forced to learn darker arts since arriving in England. "Going for high balls I use my elbow or I'm dead. Six months ago I would have been horrified but now I do the same as the others. Sometimes it's just like a game of street football, but the English love that. Three tackles in-a-row and they're in seventh heaven." But he insists he prefers playing in England where the speed of the game suits his innate pace. "I know there is a lot of responsibility on me against Manchester United so I have to do the maximum." As educations go, he will be taking his degree.