Misfiring Gunners recall goal king Henry

ARSENE WENGER has rushed Thierry Henry back from injury to boost morale for Arsenal’s Champions League clash at Sparta Prague, admitting his costly absence had damaged his side’s title bid.

Henry has not played at all since France's World Cup qualifier against the Republic of Ireland on September 7, when he came off due to the effects on an inflamed groin.

Indeed, he has not appeared for Arsenal for almost two months, since facing Fulham on August 24, and has not even played for the reserves to boost his fitness levels.

However, so pressing is the need for Arsenal to recover their lost momentum amid an injury crisis to key players including Sol Campbell, Ashley Cole and Alexander Hleb that he is back in the squad for tonight's game in Prague.

Wenger is not planning to start Henry, preferring to bring him off the bench with a view to playing against Manchester City next weekend.

"He is physically fit and he's worked hard but he would maybe be a bit rusty in decision-making in the game," he revealed.

"Ideally, I would play him for half an hour and then start him against Manchester City. If I'm in a position where I can afford to give him a run, then I will do it."

Gilberto Silva and Robin van Persie also return to the squad after missing the damaging weekend defeat at West Brom, although Dennis Bergkamp, who does not fly, has not travelled.

However, the effects of Henry's absence have been just as great as Wenger had feared.

"I always thought we would miss him. He's been out for 37 or 38 days and he's still our top scorer," he said.

"Has it been costly to us in the Premiership? It has. You miss someone who scores 25 goals a season. Against West Brom, we had 17 shots on goal and they had four, but we still lost."

Arsenal have also missed Henry's experience and leadership, especially after the summer sale of Patrick Vieira, with Campbell also having been ruled out through injury for significant periods.

"When Sol, Gilberto and Thierry are all out, we lack too much in the spine of the team. If we can get Gilberto and Thierry back, we will get a lot more experience in the dressing room," admitted Wenger.

The Arsenal boss is reluctant to admit his team's chances of winning the Champions League despite having failed to ever make it past the quarter-finals are now probably greater than prevailing in the Premiership.

"I hate to put the chances of the team on a cup competition as you always feel that the real quality of the team is in the championship," he stressed.

Then again, while Arsenal have won their opening two Champions League group ties in Henry's absence, they have fallen 14 points behind leaders Chelsea, with just one game in hand, in the Premiership.

While Wenger has not conceded defeat in the title race, he is realistic enough to start talking about the need to protect their record of finishing in the top two in each of his eight full seasons in charge.

For not only are Manchester United ahead of the Gunners, but Tottenham are now resurgent, second in the table and with a point to prove in the north London derby in less than a fortnight.

Wenger added: "We can't give up on the Championship. We want to come back as strongly as possible and we have our pride. We have always finished in the top two and we want to keep that going.

"We don't say goodbye to the title as we will fight until the last second that we have a mathematical chance, although I have to accept we are far from Chelsea."

As for Tottenham's hopes of becoming north London's leading club, he insisted: "There are just eight games gone. They are doing very well but I don't even think about that."