Jack of all trades, master of most – Thierry Henry was the greatest player in Premier League history

Winning is important in sport, it doesn’t matter what players, managers or fans tell you, winning is always going to matter.

But when you win, can you do it with style? That matters too, it doesn’t matter what players, managers or fans tell you.

And when it comes to winning with style perhaps no player better encapsulates that idea than Thierry Henry.

Like one of other players who can lay claim to the title, Cristiano Ronaldo, Henry exceeded all expectations that were there when he first arrived in England. As a winger who had failed to live up to the hype in France and Italy, Henry flourished when given the opportunity to link up with Arsene Wenger once more, who moved him back to his childhood position as a striker.

For eight devastating years Henry destroyed Premier League defences with pace, trickery, and above all else ruthlessness in front of goal. When he eventually swapped North London for Catalunya in 2007 he did so having scored 226 goals for Arsenal, the most in the club’s history, with 174 of those coming in the Premier League.

Thanks to a loan move from New York in the 2011-12 season Henry ended his career with 228 Arsenal goals, the club record, with 175 in the Premier League, the sixth highest-ever.

He won the European Golden Shoe twice, he was the first player in history to hit 20 or more Premier League goals five seasons in a row and no player has won more Premier League Golden Boots than his four.

It wasn’t just the goals however, although the magnitude is certainly hugely impressive, as he was also one of the game’s great creators. His link-up play with the likes of Dennis Bergkamp and Robert Pires was a joy to behold at times and he was a big part of some of the fabulous flowing football that Wenger’s Arsenal was known for.

Despite all his incredible goal-scoring feats perhaps the most remarkable statistic of Henry’s career is one that still stands to this day. In the 2002-03 season Henry notched 24 goals, one shy of Ruud van Nistelrooy’s tally of 25. Yet in the same season that he scored 24 goals Henry registered a staggering 20 assists, a single-season record that stands to this day. There have been few attackers in the history of the game who balanced attacking and creating in the way Henry did.

However, above all else, it was the way he played that made him so special.

The backheel against Charlton, the absurd flick and volley against Manchester United, the endless showboating and those runs. Those mazy runs that seemed to go on forever and saw him take on an entire team. It was a pure joy to watch Henry play football.

The great ones are the ones you dream of replicating when you’re in the park with your friends. Henry was the sort of player you watched with a sense of awe, and then did everything you could to try and be like him.

It’s an important trait for the future of the game as well. Henry’s arrival in England coincided with the professional revolution that was partly triggered by his manager. It was one of the paths that has led us to where we are today, with players coached and controlled the way they are. Yet players like Henry represent something important. They show young players and coaches that skill and hard work are important, but so is remembering to have fun.

The worst thing for football is for the fun to be coached out of it. Ultimately it is just a game. Henry played the same way at Old Trafford as he did in his Nike Joga Bonito adverts, and as you imagine he did when he was younger.

Of course the one big hit against Henry is that those goals should have brought more silverware than they did. One English double with one further separate league title and cup win is a paltry resume for a player of Henry’s greatness. There should have been (at least) one Champions League and another league title or two, but by the same degree Henry can look at the way he was overlooked for the Ballon d’Or with justifiable angst.

Besides at the end of the day Henry still won, he was part of a historic collection of players. He was part of a unit that won a Double and then went an entire season undefeated. Throughout it all he kept doing things you never would have thought possible.

He brought joyful, cheeky, street football to the Premier League and took it to a level we had never seen before. Henry is the greatest player in Premier League history.