before you judge

Craig Forrest already started the bad mouthing of thierry henry, but before you jump on the anti-henry bandwagon I would like you to consider something:

[After Arsenal's Champion's League loss, a month ago, to Barcelona,] an emotional Henry claimed the official ignored a series of challenges on him and insisted Arsenal had "made ourselves proud".

He added: "I don't know if the referee had a Barcelona shirt on because they kicked me all over the place. Maybe next time I'll learn how to dive. I expect the referee to do his job but I don't think he did."

Now, in the six years I have been watching Henry regularly I have never seen him dive -- EVER. And yes, today I did. When Carles Puyol came flying across in front of Henry, Henry saw Puyol's arm come up and faked an elbow to the face. It led to a free kick which led to Vieira's game winning goal. Should we be pissed at Henry for "losing his honour"?

I say no. We should be mad at a game that forces a player of Henry's calibre to make such plays to attain any semblance of fair play. A game where defenders can head hunt attackers at will and never get called if the attacker doesn't become theatrical is a game that forces theatricality. And if that's whta it takes for Henry to win that's what it takes.

Allez les Bleus!!!!