Thierry Henry has been quietly impressed with Arsenal’s Champions League form this season (Picture: Paramount)
Thierry Henry is confident Arsenal are well equipped to make a major bid for Champions League glory this season.
The Gunners had been absent from Europe’s elite club competition for six years before Mikel Arteta masterminded their return.
Arsenal have shown few signs of stage fright so far and sealed their place in the last 16 as group winners, with a game to spare, following last night’s dominant 6-0 victory over Lyon.
Despite their relative inexperience in this competition, Henry sees no reason why they can’t emulate last season’s surprise package, Napoli, and reach 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.
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‘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.’
After a hard-fought win over Brentford last weekend, meanwhile, Arteta was delighted his side were able to showcase the more aesthetically pleasing aspects of their football, with his front five all finding themselves on the scoresheet.
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‘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.’
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The Gunners are cooking in Europe.