Injuries restrict Wenger’s options with Henry

ARSENAL boss Arsene Wenger may have problems in trying to give Thierry Henry some rest but he has no worries that the striker will ever let his off-field activities interfere with his career.

Henry could be left to shoulder Arsenal’s forward responsibilities after Jeremie Aliadiere joined Sylvain Wiltord and Dennis Bergkamp on the absentee list having suffered a knee injury in the 4-1 win over Middlesbrough.

Wenger is still hoping to have Kanu available for Sunday’s trip to Aston Villa, but that will only happen if the striker can persuade Nigeria coach Christian Chukwu to delay his arrival at the African Nations Cup.

“We need him now as we have a difficult game at Aston Villa but I want it clarified by Wednesday morning at the latest,” said the Arsenal boss.

Otherwise, with Aliadiere out for up to a month, Wenger will either have to field one of his young talents at Villa or push Fredrik Ljungberg or Robert Pires into emergency service.

The Arsenal boss could also move into the transfer market, even though he again insisted he would be reluctant to do so.

Wenger is nevertheless still determined to give Henry a much-needed rest in the next month or so to protect him ahead of the title run-in.

That could at least spell some respite for Boro as it may mean they do not face Henry in any of their three cup ties against Arsenal in the next 17 days.

Given the torrid time their defence experienced at his hands at Highbury, with Danny Mills paying the price of trying to put him off a penalty, that would certainly come as a welcome relief.

For, as Wenger observed, Henry is fast becoming the most high-profile figure in the Premiership, as much due to his all-round talents as his appearance in TV adverts and commercial campaigns.

But while Alex Ferguson had concerns that David Beckham, himself a consummate professional, had too many off-pitch distractions, Wenger has no such worries about Henry.

“He’s certainly the striker that you talk about as he was number two as player of the year with both FIFA and UEFA and that means he’s the best,” said the Arsenal boss.

“I’m not interested in his adverts just his football. Whether he becomes high-profile commercially, Thierry will only go so far and then stop it before it becomes too disruptive.

“He’s an extrovert but he was in the spotlight at 19 or 20 so he has learned to cope with it. He loves to play football so much that he wouldn’t allow any commercial things to disturb him.”

Boro felt the full force of Henry’s aftalents, starting with the cool way he converted the 37th-minute penalty despite Danny Mills’ unsporting attempts to distract him.

Wenger insisted that referee Andy D’Urso should have taken action against Mills with a yellow card.

Indeed, when asked if that sort of gamesmanship should be allowed, the Arsenal boss declared: “I don’t think so and it’s up to the referee to take action.

“Thierry was a bit angry after that as you’re under pressure when you take a penalty and I’ve seen people miss penalties because of that.

“But Thierry scored and that’s not the best way to deal with him! Mills had picked on the wrong player.”

Henry could himself have been booked for celebrating his converted penalty right in Mills’ face.

Henry revealed: “I had a good chat with the referee and he said maybe I shouldn’t have made that reaction but I told him that he could have taken Mills away from my face as he was trying to put me off.

“That kind of thing happens when you play with your friends in the park but I shook his hand at the end of the game. He tried to put me off but the most important thing is that we won.”