Henry hits back at critics as Gunners bid for Europe success
Henry will captain Arsenal in the absence of Patrick Vieira through suspension for tonight's final Champions League group tie against Rosenborg, as well as Sunday's crunch clash against Chelsea.
He demonstrated the incredibly high standards which he demands from himself as he insisted his haul of 16 goals for the season to date was "still not enough."
The Frenchman said: "I've always been like that. Whether I'd played well or scored, my dad always used to say 'it's not enough'. I don't mind that."
However, he simply chuckles at the criticism which has increasingly been coming his way over the past few months. Henry stands accused of not performing in the biggest games, as well as cutting a moody figure out on the pitch and bawling out team-mates.
"It's funny as they don't talk about the real things. It doesn't annoy me, it just makes me laugh," he responded.
"We are not machines, no-one is. People should see how many games people play. When you don't do it for one or two games out of 300, people give you stick but that's the way it is. What is strange is that some of those people played football so it doesn't make any sense.
"The most important thing is that my team-mates are happy when I go back into the dressing-room, that they know I tried to give 100% and that I can look at myself in the mirror."
Henry has already admitted that he is currently playing at just 70% capacity due to injury.
However, despite having had little impact in this weekend's clash against Birmingham City for the first 80 minutes, he then burst into life and scored twice to round off a 3-0 win.
"As long as I can walk, I can try to run. People gave me stick during the week after the Liverpool defeat but that's just the way it is," he said.
"People should look at how many games I play in a season and how many of them are bad."
His first goal against Birmingham was Henry at his best, turning Kenny Cunningham before cutting inside and nonchalantly slipping his shot past Maik Taylor.
Then again, he observed: "I'm sure that if I'd missed it, people would have said 'you can see he's not fresh'.
"If you score, it's normal. You can never win but I don't want to win those arguments, I'm just trying to play for my team. Without the team, I am nothing. I've only seen one player who could transform an entire team and that was Diego Maradona."
Arsenal will be without not only Vieira, but also Lauren, through suspension against Rosenborg, whom they need to beat to make sure of their place in the last 16. They will also be missing Gilberto Silva, Edu and Pascal Cygan through injury, although Dennis Bergkamp is still hopeful of making a comeback at Highbury.
Highbury goalkeeping legend Bob Wilson has warned that the Gunners have struggled to adequately replace David Seaman and expressed his worries about the technique of Jens Lehmann's stand-in, Manuel Almunia.
Arsene Wenger approaches a key week with major doubts hanging over his two keepers amid reports of an impending bid for Chelsea's Carlo Cudicini in the January transfer window.
In the belief that Wenger will keep faith with Almunia against Rosenborg, Wilson hopes the Arsenal boss has again "pulled a rabbit out of the hat."
However, not only does he believe that Arsenal still lack a true replacement for Seaman, but he insists that the best candidate is Stuart Taylor, who is now playing for Leicester.
Asked if Arsenal had yet adequately replaced Seaman, Wilson said: "No, but you can't do that. It's the same thing at Manchester United with Peter Schmeichel.
"That's why Jens Lehmann did so well last season. He was not only coming into the side, he was replacing one of the great goalkeepers. The only question-marks over him last season were the two mistakes in the Champions League ties against Chelsea.
"Secondly, everyone knows he has a short fuse. That makes him vulnerable and people attack that vulnerability. But he has made more errors this season than he did last season."
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