Henry laughs at Arsenal chances vs Man City as Arteta told to change ‘everything’ | OneFootball

Thierry Henry has told Mikel Arteta that “everything” must be different for Arsenal to beat Manchester City and insists Declan Rice’s “face” after the draw with Sporting tells the story.

The Gunners saw out a goalless draw at the Emirates to confirm their place in the Champions League semi-finals, where they will meet Atletico Madrid, after Kai Havertz’s late goal in the first leg secured a 1-0 aggregate win.

It was the latest unconvincing performance from Arteta’s side in a long list of them on the back of Carabao Cup final defeat to Manchester City, the FA Cup exit at the hands of Southampton and the Premier League loss to Bournemouth on Saturday.

Not the best preparation for their trip to the Etihad to play Manchester City in what many believe will be the title decider on Sunday.

If City triumph over Arsenal and win their game in hand they will be level on points with Arsenal at the top of the Premier League table.

Asked what he wants to see from his former side in the crunch clash, Arteta referred to Arteta’s unhinged press conference ahead of the Sporting game, in which he demanded “fire” from his players.

“I want to see that fire at the Etihad,” Henry told CBS Sports.

“That’s what I want to see, it’s easy to talk, go there, at Man City, and deliver.

“I believe in what I see though, I believe in him Arteta, ‘the fire’, but when you talk like that you have to do it then. I didn’t see that tonight.

“We are through, so happy, semi-final, I never won it, but I won the league though, go and win at Man City, I want to see that fire there, I believe Mikel, yes, but show it.”

Asked how he would approach the game against City, Henry replied: “Not like tonight, or against Bournemouth, or Brighton away, or Mansfield, or everything that I’ve seen this season.”

Asked if the performance against Sporting would be enough to beat City, Henry laughed and replied: “The Man City I’ve seen recently? We’re talking about the team that won four in a row, Liverpool came in between that if not it would have been more.

“I do believe, I’ve been saying since the beginning of the season, this year I do believe we can win the league, this is the biggest chance in your life just to prove to yourself, as a team, that we can.

“And then people will not talk about the word they want to use that I do not want to use.

“I do believe personally but I am sitting in a chair for CBS, there’s nothing I can do. Now I heard ‘fire’, I want to see that fire at the Etihad.

“If you have the face of Declan Rice go back to that, at the end of the game I stayed with his face, you had a lot of guys smiling but his face… I don’t know, maybe I need to speak to him to know what he had in his head. This is a guy who just went through to the semi-final of the Champions League.

“There’s no positive or negative here. We are in a semi-final of a Champions League, well done, that didn’t happen a lot in history so obviously I’m over the moon. But City… I want the team to win there, not draw, statement.”