Gunners can still shoot to top, says injured Henry

THIERRY HENRY insisted Arsenal could still top their Champions League group as he embarked on a fitness battle to recover from injury in time for Sunday’s clash at Liverpool.

Henry is doubtful for this weekend’s trip to Anfield after receiving two painful kicks on an already troublesome Achilles injury at PSV Eindhoven. He only recently admitted that he was playing at just 70% capacity due to the problem.

Henry is scheduled to rest and undergo intensive treatment over the next couple of days.

“It’s always the same. When you’re in pain somewhere, you always get a knock on it,” he said. “In the first 10 minutes, Alex kicked me on my Achilles by accident. I was struggling a bit with that and then there was a challenge by Andre Ooijer around the 30th minute when he kicked me too. I was just trying to do my best and I just kept on trying to run.”

With Robin van Persie stretchered off with a knee injury, while Jose Reyes was also kicked on the knee, Arsenal’s injury problems are mounting, with Gilberto and Edu already ruled out.

Despite his injury problems, Henry still managed to score the equaliser which kept Arsenal’s hopes of reaching the knock-out stages alive, especially after Panathinaikos only drew at Rosenborg. It was Arsenal’s fourth consecutive draw in the competition, while they also had Patrick Vieira and Lauren sent off.

Now they must beat Rosenborg at home in their final group tie to make sure of their place in the last 16, although, whatever happens, they would go through if Panathinaikos failed to defeat PSV.

Henry said: “Thank God that Rosenborg came back in their game. We still have the opportunity to top the group now if PSV don’t win. Let’s try to do that.”

With Vieira and Lauren both ruled out of the Rosenborg game through suspension, that could leave the inexperienced duo of Mathieu Flamini and Cesc Fabregas in central midfield.

Henry, nevertheless, insisted: “We will obviously miss Patrick and Lauren but you have seen a team who really fought for it against a PSV side who are never easy to play away from home. This was a vital result for us. To be honest, when Andre Ooijer scored, everyone thought ‘oh no’.

“But this time we showed our commitment to come back into the game. Even with 10 men, I had a great chance that the goalkeeper saved and Freddie Ljungberg also had an amazing chance. But with all the draws we’ve had in the competition, that’s the first one that we can go out of this stadium with our heads up.”