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Daily Mirror
Daily Mirror
Sport
Nathan Ridley

Thierry Henry follows up Arsenal criticism with damning assessment on European hopes

Thierry Henry has followed up on his criticism of Arsenal with a damning assessment of their European hopes.

The Gunners legend recently admitted his concerns as to whether manager Mikel Arteta was leading the team in the "right direction" and has doubled down by doubting their credentials to qualify for continental competition come May.

Arsenal needed a 96th-minute equaliser from Alexandre Lacazette against Patrick Vieira 's Crystal Palace on Monday as they snatched their second successive draw.

And Henry, speaking while on punditry duty for CBS Sports, was quizzed on whether his former club would return to Europe this season after failing to qualify for the first time in 26 years last term.

Henry says Arsenal will not qualify for Europe this season unless they improve (CBS Sports)

When host Kate Abdo asked whether the Gunners will qualify for the European football, Henry firmly responded: "Not with what I saw recently."

Meanwhile, fellow pundits covering Tuesday's Champions League matches, Liverpool legend and Jamie Carragher ex- Manchester City defender Micah Richards, both claimed that Arsenal would.

However, that only means the pair believe Arteta and co will finish inside the top seven Premier League places which would see them compete in either the Europa League and Europa Conference League in 2022-23.

Last week, Henry's comments on the Gunners made headlines and even saw Arteta respond, although he merely labelled it "another opinion."

Speaking at the Prime Video Presents Sport 2021 showcase event, the 44-year-old said: "I don’t know if things are going in the right direction.

"I watched the Brighton game [before the international break]. Did you watch it?

"I’ve seen us beating Norwich before, winning at Burnley, beating Tottenham at home - because we always beat Tottenham at home," the former Highbury hitman gleefully noted.

"I was more than happy when we beat Tottenham as we were on a good run but I was waiting to see a performance, away from home, against a team that passes the ball.

"And, instead, we suffered."

Will Arsenal qualify for Europe this season? Comment your thoughts below.

Henry went on to say: "I was waiting to see the Brighton game, to see if we could have the ball and keep the ball, away from home, retaining possession, against a dangerous Brighton side.

"When we used to lose, even after I left the team, it was always said that Arsenal don’t have a Plan B and that they passed too much for the sake of passing.

"But I didn’t see that from Arsenal in the Brighton match. I saw Brighton do that."

His criticism was lent credence by the North London side's display against Palace, with Arteta saying his team played "with the handbrake on" at the Emirates.

"We managed to score the goal, and we were in control. And then our level dropped," he told Arsenal Media.

"We had no composure on the ball, we started to give the ball away too easily, we didn't have any sequences in our passes, we wanted to attack in one or two passes and the distances were too big.

"I think we put the handbrake on a little bit. We started to defend something.

"We were not moving fluently enough and taking the right decisions, playing forward more and being more ambitious to score the second goal in that moment."

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