Thierry Henry expresses confidence in Arsenal’s capability to mount a significant challenge for Champions League success this season.
After a six-year absence from Europe’s premier club competition, Mikel Arteta guided the Gunners back, and they secured a spot in the last 16 as group winners with a game to spare, courtesy of a commanding 6-0 win over Lyon.
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Despite their limited experience in this tournament, Henry believes there’s no impediment to them replicating last season’s surprise success of Napoli and advancing to the latter stages.
‘Look I think that they are with what they’ve been showing recently in the league, the year before and this year they are top of the league,’ Arsenal’s all-time record goalscorer told CBS.
‘They are a bit less convincing than last year but they are still top of the league and you have to take that.
‘Having said that if it was Napoli playing the same way and doing that last year, we were raving about it what they were doing, different group, I would understand that.
‘But yes I think Arsenal are in the mix not only to be contenders but go all the way, hopefully.’
Following a challenging victory against Brentford last weekend, Arteta expressed delight in his team’s ability to display the more visually appealing facets of their football. All five players in their attacking lineup contributed to the scoresheet.
‘I didn’t even dream like this, but we had the chance to qualify today and become top of the group and we’ve done it in a really convincing way against a really good side,’ said the Arsenal manager.
‘I think the team right from the beginning showed a lot of aggression and determination to go for the game, everything happened in the right way especially in the first 30 minutes and that was really helpful to win the game.
‘It’s a great that we are able to win in this way, but I think consistently we have shown at home not to concede any goals, and score a lot of goals, that’s a really positive factor.
‘Those players need to have those experiences, and believe that we can do it against big opponents, now let’s wait, we have to park it and in February we will know who we are facing and let’s see how we are in that moment.’
