Earlier this week, as we all know, Arsenal hero Thierry Henry announced his retirement from football. This announcement followed his last match for MLS team the New York Red Bulls at the end of November.

Henry’s retirement raises the question of who, if anyone in the current Gunners side, will step up to Henry’s near impossible level?

Although Olivier Giroud has scored a respectable 31 goals in 77 appearances he is a completely different player to ‘Mr Va Va Voom’. Olivier Giroud has aerial prowess and good link-up play, these are his main strengths, but Henry mainly thrived on out-pacing and out-thinking the defenders.

Now for Danny Welbeck, the England international has good qualities including closing down the opposition and working hard for the team; he can be clinical in front of goal, but this has not yet been done consistently enough. Sometimes he hits the ball sweetly, and sometimes he misses the target when he should be challenging the keeper. Like Giroud he is excellent at heading so provides Arsenal with something different to the wide men like Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Theo Walcott, when fit. Heading was probably the only weakness Henry had, which was surprising given his stature and presence.

Alexis Sanchez is similar to Thierry in the way that he is very direct and loves to go past defenders using his pace and strength. He has started his Arsenal career with a real self-confidence, and has arguably saved this team from being in the bottom part of the Premier League table. He has scored an impressive nine goals in just 14 appearances, as well as having quite a few assists to his name!

So can any of these players step up the intimidating scoring prowess of Thierry Henry? It is maybe too early to say but Alexis looks the most likely as he has been the most clinical, and also plays with class like Henry.

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