Henry hails defensive strength

Thierry Henry believes the clean sheet gained in last week's UEFA Champions League semi-final first leg against Villarreal CF at Highbury could provide the platform to take Arsenal FC into the final of Europe's premier club competition for the first time.

Clean-sheet record
Arsène Wenger's side avoided conceding for the ninth European game in succession, and although a disciplined and hard-working Villarreal performance meant Arsenal were unable to display their usual fluency in attack, Kolo Touré's close-range finish minutes before half-time ensured they would travel to Spain with a narrow lead. While being pleased to have eked out an advantage, Henry says that denying Villarreal an invaluable away goal might be the decisive factor.

Home strength
"If you don't concede a goal at home in Europe, I always think it is a good result," said the Arsenal captain. "With our attacking abilities, not letting them score is crucial and we can be cautiously optimistic for the second leg. At home in the Champions League, 0-0 is not such a bad result but, of course, it's even better if you can win and luckily we managed to do that. I'm pleased with the first-leg result and I think we should be happy with it."

Damage limitation
Villarreal's cautious approach succeeded in limiting Arsenal to a solitary strike, but left the Spanish team unable to muster a goalscoring threat of their own - which surprised Henry. "We scored a crucial goal just before half-time and I thought they were going to have a go at us and try to play in the second half, but it actually seemed they were happy to lose 1-0," the 28-year-old said. "At their own ground, however, they will have to go forward. I thought they would do that at Highbury to try and score an away goal to make life easier for them at home, but they stayed back."

Full-backs fêted
Once again, the French international was quick to pay tribute to Arsenal's young defence, which despite an average age of 22, and with 25-year-old Touré as its oldest member, has kept out Real Madrid CF and Juventus twice during an 829-minute unbeaten run. "This is a team achievement, everyone is chasing lost causes and defending really well," Henry pointed out. "But I'm not surprised how well the young players have done, I knew what they were capable of. Mathieu Flamini took two or three matches to settle in at left-back, he was a bit short of confidence and the team wasn't doing particularly well, and the same is true of Emmanuel Eboué on the right. But they're young, they grew in confidence and they have no fear. They played in Madrid and Turin without any problems."

English experience
Those players are sure to face another stern examination at El Madrigal, although Henry thinks the ground at least will resemble a home from home, saying: "Villarreal is like an English stadium, the pitch is quite compact, there's lots of noise and atmosphere and we're used to that in England, but that doesn't mean it's going to be easy. We're not in the final yet, there's still 90 minutes left in this tie, though we're not far away."