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Daily Mirror
Daily Mirror
Sport
Sam Meade

Thierry Henry recalls his favourite Arsenal goal - and the 'weird' coincidences behind it

Thierry Henry has labelled his FA Cup winner against Leeds in 2012 as his favourite Arsenal goal.

The Gunners legend returned for a short loan spell and scored on his first game back.

He had left for Barcelona in 2007 after eight years in north London where he became one of the club's greatest players.

The Frenchman claims when he scored his goal he felt like a fan.

But when he slotted the ball past Andy Lonergan he was wearing the No 12 shirt despite being synonymous with No 14.

That set about a strange sequence of events involving the number 12.

Thierry Henry marked his return with a goal (Reuters)

No matter where you looked you couldn't escape the figure - be it minutes, goals, appearances or even the year.

"The comeback goal, you know when I came back to play against Leeds for Arsenal," Henry said in an Instagram Live.

"It was weird because I scored the goal as a fan. I never had the chance, you played for Barcelona because you [Fabregas] were a fan when you were young, you went back, it’s different.

"And also the meaning. It was kind of weird.

"I came back with number 12, that’s my number actually. Fourteen is not my number. I took the number 14 at Arsenal because Christopher Wreh had number 12, so I didn’t want to take it off him.

"That’s the reason, I didn’t want to take it off him. That’s why when I came back, number 12 because of Marco van Basten at Euro 88.

"But you have to understand, I scored with 12 minutes to go on the clock, 78th minute. That was my 12th game against Leeds, that was my 12th goal, I’m wearing number 12 and we were just turning into 2012."

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