Henry hails united Arsenal

Thierry Henry believes a strong team ethic has got Arsenal FC's season back on track but recognises his team-mates cannot afford to lose focus as they travel to Turin to face Juventus with a first UEFA Champions League semi-final within reach.

Henry hurrah
The English side earned a 2-0 first-leg advantage at Highbury last week, Henry scoring the second goal against his former club to add to Cesc Fabregas's opener. The result featured Arsenal's seventh consecutive clean sheet in the competition, equalling the feat achieved by AC Milan last term, while four straight Premiership victories ensure the team go to Italy in buoyant mood. Henry has no doubts about the reason for the improvement, telling uefa.com: "We have remembered how to play as a team. Against Juve we did that from beginning to end, and that's why we won. When you play like that, you always get what you deserve."

Word of warning
Henry had a brief spell with Juve in 1998/99 and is only too aware of the threat posed by the Italian champions, who will be without Mauro Camoranesi, Jonathan Zebina and Patrick Vieira through suspension, although Pavel Nedvěd returns from a ban. "We're not in the semi-finals yet. We're in a good position but we can't get carried away," he said. "Juve will come back strongly, but we'll just have to stay calm. We made life difficult for Juventus at Highbury, but they can do the same to us in Italy. That's football, you can never predict what will happen. We've shown that even without key players you can do well, so the same could be true for Juve. They're capable of turning this round, they can kill you in two minutes and we must remember that."

Team excellence
The Arsenal captain is in a rich vein of form having scored seven goals in six matches including a spectacular double in Saturday's 5-0 defeat of Aston Villa FC, but is keen to share the credit for the Gunners' resurgence. "The difference has been that everyone has been helping each other," he said. "For example, Robert Pirès and Aleksandr Hleb have been tracking back to support the full-backs. Robert's tackle on Vieira helped set up our first goal against Juve and, for me, was a symbol of the night. But it was about the whole team. Gilberto was first to every ball, [José Antonio] Reyes and Hleb were always involved, Emmanuel Eboué was extraordinary and Mathieu Flamini is learning every game, he's an intelligent player and he's grown into the left-back role."

'Finish the job'
It was 18-year-old Spanish international midfielder Cesc Fabregas who took most of the plaudits, however, following a display of remarkable maturity in which he scored the first goal and created the second for Henry. The Frenchman is one of many Fabregas fans, adding: "What can I say about Cesc? I just hope he can carry on developing, he's an intelligent player and his passing is very important to us. He has the 'nose' to get into the box and knows when to join the attack, when he has time on the ball and so on. If you let Cesc play, he can destroy you. [For the second goal] I knew he would give me the ball. When it arrived I thought I was going to miss it as it was a bit behind me, but fortunately I managed to finish the job." Arsenal will be hoping Henry and company can do the same in Turin.