Henry compares Arsenal to La Liga side in Arteta defence

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Thierry Henry has pushed back at the criticism of Arsenal's playing style, insisting Mikel Arteta deserves respect for ending the club's 22-year wait for a Premier League title.

Arsenal were crowned champions last season and came within one match of a European double, only to be beaten by Paris Saint-Germain in the Champions League final in May.

Despite that, the debate around the Gunners has centred on their reliance on set-pieces and their approach in the biggest games. Arsenal registered just 24.7 per cent possession against PSG in the final — the lowest figure recorded by a team in a Champions League final since records began in 2004.

Henry: 'You don't have to love it but you must respect him'

Speaking to Jerome Rothen in an interview with RMC Sport, Henry explained why the criticism has puzzled him.

'It's not that it annoyed me, it's that at one point it took Mikel three-and-a-half, four years to be competitive, more or less,' Henry said. 'It's not easy to create a team but the leaders believed in him and gave him time and he's shown he's a good coach.'

The club's record goalscorer pointed to how the narrative around Arsenal has flipped entirely. 'Now, we were known for not being combative, that teams could just walk all over us, do whatever they wanted, but we play football. That was the discussion about Arsenal.'

'At a certain point, you've got to get ahead of Liverpool and City, so the guy is working, he's trying to find a way to overtake City. Suddenly, we're tough, we dominate, it's hard to create chances against us, we don't get walked all over, but now they are saying they are not playing pretty.'

The Atletico Madrid comparison

Henry also revealed he was not remotely surprised by Arsenal's low-possession game plan in the Champions League final. 'People kept asking me if I was surprised by our approach in the Champions League final, I said, no. They did that all the time through the year. Maybe not all year round but against teams of this calibre.'

'But it's not malicious, it's just a method of operating. I've seen teams win everything playing like that, I've seen teams win by playing well.'

He referenced the 3-0 defeat at Brighton as an outlier rather than a trend. 'If you watch our team play, and generally away from home we're solid, we don't concede much, the goals we do let in usually come from specific plays. But then you lose 3-0 against Brighton and they don't defend. It means they did something exceptional, it was the first time in I don't know how long that Arsenal conceded three and didn't score.'

Henry's ultimate verdict was a comparison to Diego Simeone's Atletico Madrid, a side that built a reputation across Europe for being deeply uncomfortable to face.

'You don't have to love it but you must respect him. He brought back a title, I respect that,' Henry said. 'Perhaps it's not in the same style, not all of the time, but for a while teams in Europe didn't like playing against Atletico Madrid — that's us. The teams don't like playing against Arsenal.'

With a league title secured and a Champions League final behind them, the questions around Arteta's methods are unlikely to disappear — and neither, it seems, is Henry's willingness to answer them.