Thierry Henry has warned Arsenal about an ‘unplayable’ opponent in the Champions League.
The Gunners began their European campaign with a 1-0 win over Napoli on Wednesday thanks to Martin Odegaard’s late goal.
Mikel Arteta led Arsenal to the Champions League final last season but then watched his team suffer a heartbreaking penalty shootout defeat to PSG.
Arsenal are once again one of the favourites to become European champions after winning the Premier League last season and enjoying a brilliant start to the new campaign.
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The north Londoners have won all three of the opening Premier League games and made a winning start to the Champions League against Serie A giants Napoli.
Henry is hopeful his former club can finally lift the Champions League trophy but has warned that the holders PSG are virtually ‘unplayable’.
Luis Enrique guided the French champions to back-to-back European crowns and PSG kick-started their title defence with a hugely impressive 6-1 win over Slovan Bratislava.
‘You see how PSG press? They’re unplayable,’ Henry told The Athletic. ‘But it took Luis Enrique a good five to six months to get that team going.
‘People do forget that players need to be coachable. That’s a massive thing that people do not talk a lot about.
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‘If you’re a coach and your players are willing to do everything you ask them to do, and they have a tiny bit of quality, you can go places. If they rebel a tiny bit, it can be more difficult.
‘It’s easy to say now that PSG is a good team. When all those guys (including Kylian Mbappe, Neymar and Lionel Messi) left two years ago, everyone thought, “Oh my god, where are they going to go from that?”
‘Then they got Bradley Barcola, and then they got Desire Doue. At that time, you’re not thinking those guys are going to do what they did.
‘But because Luis Enrique is so sound on how he likes to play, they have done it. Do you remember what Ousmane Dembele said? He said, “If you don’t run at Paris Saint-Germain, you’re out”. Simple as that.’
Arsenal have been installed as the clear favourites to retain the Premier League trophy but Henry wants to see more from Manchester City and Chelsea before making any title declarations.
‘Everyone was like, “Liverpool know how to win. I don’t see how they’re not going to win the title again”,’ Henry said, recalling the landscape ahead of the 2025-26 Premier League season.
‘Two weeks after, it went south for so many reasons. When they didn’t buy anyone, they won the league with Arne Slot. They went on to buy people, they imploded.
‘That’s why when people ask me, “Who is a challenger, who is a contender? Do you think if that player goes there, they can challenge?”, I say, “Hey, we have to wait. Let Maresca work, let Xabi work”.
‘Because I coached. People would tell me, “Thierry, you coached for one minute and a half!” But still, (it is not easy) to put the team together during the Olympics in two weeks; a team that never played together before and will never play together after, to build an identity and a philosophy in two weeks.
‘This is why I say let the coach work. Let’s see.’
Arsenal will look to secure their sixth successive win of the season on Saturday when they visit the Stadium of Light to face Sunderland.
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Arsenal legend Thierry Henry says Champions League team are ‘unplayable’ | Football
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