Arsenal FC: Thierry Henry's Top 10 Moments with the Gunners

Five words summed up Arsenal's FA Cup third-round match against Leeds United on Monday night.

"It had to be Henry."

With the two teams mired in a 0-0 deadlock and two-thirds of the game completed, a face familiar to worldwide Gunners fans stepped onto the pitch in the 68th minute to replace the embattled Marouane Chamakh, who had put in an ineffective performance.

Each fan wielding a camera jockeyed to get a snapshot of Thierry Henry's entrance. The ensuing flashes were a scene worthy of kickoff at a World Cup final.

It took the man who scored a club-record 226 goals during eight seasons with the Gunners (1999-2007) just 10 minutes to find the net this time 'round.

Henry used a darting run in behind the Leeds defense to give himself a brief smidgen of space. Midfielder Alex Song then picked him out with a brilliantly timed through ball which Henry took sublimely in his stride before slotting home with his instep past keeper Andy Lonergan.

It was his 12th-ever goal against Leeds and his 227th overall for the club, and it felt as if he'd never left London Colney. We'd seen that side-footed finish hundreds of times before, but this one was as memorable as any.

Who knows exactly what caught Arsene Wenger's eye back in 1999 when he decided to shell out £11 million for a young Juventus winger, who was long on talent but short on production.

Perhaps Wenger had seen enough during his time as Henry's manager at AS Monaco (the two overlapped at the Principality club in the mid-90s) to believe that he could make a successful transition to the Premier League. (Wenger has shown a knack, after all, for bringing Ligue 1 players to the club!)

It proved a fateful and prosperous decision.

Memories abound from Henry's time in an Arsenal kit. The double-winning side of 2001-02; the unprecedented Invincibles of 2003-04.

The individual exploits so dizzying and mystifying in their majesty that they left a viewer feeling like the defenders Henry had just befuddled on his inimitable runs: shocked and in awe. There were no half-measures with this player.

Here are 10 of those greatest moments from Henry's time in north London.

10. Henry Nets Four Times Against Leeds United, 2004

Thierry Henry's 2003-04 campaign with Arsenal was one of the most dominating in Premier League history, perfectly accentuating The Invincibles' season.

With 30 league goals (39 in all competitions), the Frenchman cemented his status as perhaps the greatest striker in the world during that time period.

This four-goal explosion against Leeds United at Highbury contained the complete set of Henry's goalscoring potential: breathtaking pace, cool finishes and brilliant tactical maneuvering.

In his prime, there were few players more enjoyable to watch.

9. Henry's Impeccable Sense of Humor

Lost amid the lengthy list of plaudits earned by Thierry Henry throughout his glittering Arsenal career was his sense of humor.

This video aside, Arsenal fans will smile knowingly when reminded of that brilliant video of Henry feinting with one foot before kicking with his trailing leg. It's a brilliant bit of technique and nearly impossible to replicate without some serious devotion to practicing.

There were plenty of other examples of his wit and humor, but this gem with Fabregas during the 2005-06 season remains my favorite. An important lesson from the elder statesman to the star pupil.

8. The Celebration That Would Become Etched in Bronze

The pose picked by Arsenal brass for Thierry Henry's statue outside Emirates stadium, unveiled this past December as part of the club's 125th-year celebration, couldn't have been more fitting.

If you're going to pick an enduring image, it may as well have emanated from a match against Spurs.

This goal was vintage Henry. Never mind the 75-yard run, which saw him push past all defenders with speed and strength.

It was the ability to pick out his spot in Kasey Keller's goal and then unleash an unstoppable curling drive on his weaker foot that I found most remarkable.

Were I an accomplished filmmaker, I would transition Henry's celebratory pose seen in the above video into a sepia-tinged frame of the aforementioned statue. But I'm not, so you'll have to indulge my flights of visual fancy (I thought it was a pretty cool idea, but then who knows).

To score such a goal against your bitter rival is to cement yourself in an incontrovertible manner into your own club's lore (a.k.a. bronze).

7. Henry Sets the San Siro Alight, 2004

The 5-1 romp against Inter Milan in the 2004 Champions League knockout stages remains one of the most important away performances from Arsenal in recent international competition.

Coupled with the 2-0 victory against AC Milan in the same stadium in the 2008 Champions League Round of 16, one feels that good omens are emanating ahead of the Gunners' next trip to the iconic Milanese arena.

The third time could be quite the charm (knocks on wood).

This season, Arsenal will take on AC Milan in the CL Round of 16 that is markedly different from the side faced in '08. Winners of the 2010-11 Scudetto, the Rossoneri will be difficult to surmount, but with Thierry Henry named within the squad set to feature in the two-leg tie, Arsenal fans must be hoping history repeats itself (with the legendary Frenchman leading the charge).

Henry's hat trick back against Inter came when his club needed it most—a 3-0 drubbing in the first leg at Highbury had pushed the Gunners into the proverbial gutter. A result in the return leg was tantamount.

Whether they could achieve said exploit was in no way assured or, perhaps, even thought possible.

Five Gunners goals later—bolstered by Henry's triple—the improbable was achieved. Arsenal would not win the Champions League that season (the Premier League title would be their only silverware), but it was moments like these that made that undefeated league season even more memorable.

A different competition, yes, but still worthy of mention.

6. "That" Goal Against Manchester United

His exile from commentating was wholly deserved—a true testament to foot-in-mouth disease—but I must say that I do miss Andy Gray's inimitable bouts of hyperbole from time to time. There are few like him in the world of football.

This goal spoke for itself, but Gray's description did add that little something extra to the occasion. A worthy commentator is a welcome boon to any great feat.

The technique was vintage Thierry Henry; the spontaneity only made it that much more incredible. Keeper (and Henry's French compatriot) Fabien Barthez could do nothing but stand dumbstruck, marveling at the ball's perfect trajectory before it settled into the back of his net.

Barthez must have seen Henry in his nightmares after some of the epic matches between the two rivals in the early 2000s. The French striker definitely had the keeper's number during those bouts.

5. Scores Winner Against Leeds in First Match Back with Club

It wasn't so much the goal as the occasion.

Henry surely scored more aesthetically pleasing strikes during his Arsenal career, but it is this one, netted in his first appearance during his current six-week loan deal, that will probably be remembered most vividly by Gunners fans.

It had the feel of an "I remember where I was and what I was doing when..." moments. Unforgettable.

He delivered his club through to the fourth round of the FA Cup with this goal, which ultimately proved the decisive strike in an eventual 1-0 victory.

This obviously wasn't in the same register as some of his other achievements with the club, but it bolstered hope and looks to have provided an extra gear to the Arsenal machine as they continue on in the 2011-12 campaign.

That certainly can't be a bad thing.

4. Hat Trick Against Wigan in the Final Game at Highbury, 2006

What better way to say goodbye to the ground upon which he'd become a star than with his own set of fireworks—three, to be exact?

Henry scored over 100 goals at hallowed Highbury, springing Gunners fans into life occasion upon occasion with strikes such as these over the span of seven seasons (1999-2006) before the club moved to the Emirates stadium ahead of the 2006-07 campaign.

Post-match celebrations at the ground soon to be resigned to the annals of history were made all the sweeter because of the 4-2 victory against Wigan Athletic, a match in which Arsenal had trailed 2-1 at one point.

Not only was it a moral victory of sorts, but it assured Arsenal's inclusion in the next season's Champions League by way of a fourth-place finish in the Premier League standings.

Henry's final act was a perfectly placed penalty, followed by a celebration in which he kissed the ground that had given him so much joy throughout the years.

Quite a way to send Highbury off.

3. Leads Arsenal to the Double in 2001-02

Compared to the flowing mane boasted by whom I assumed to be David Seaman's kid in the background to Henry's right, the Frenchman's exultant pose while hoisting the FA Cup aloft simply pales.

The match itself, a 2-0 victory over London rivals Chelsea, did not.

The victory over Arsenal's historic London rivals provided the perfect finish to a season in which Arsenal also nabbed the league title. It was the second double of Arsene Wenger's managerial reign (he had first accomplished that feat in 1997-98) and the third-ever double in club history.

The 2001-02 season was an historic season for the Frenchman, who scored a then career-high 24 league goals (he would match that total the ensuing campaign before netting a personal best of 30 Premiership strikes in 2003-04).

We witnessed a striker morphing into the worldwide force who would terrorize defenses for the next four to five seasons. More silverware and glory, of course, was on the way.

2. Breaks Ian Wright's Club Goal-Scoring Record

As Barney Stinson of How I Met Your Mother fame would put it, this moment was "Legen...wait for it...DARY."

If you're going to break the all-time club goal-scoring record, you might as well do it in spectacular fashion.

Henry's goals had come in many shapes, ways and forms for Arsenal (this brilliant bit of improvisation against Charlton Athletic in 2004 remains one of my favorites). The one constant was their frequency.

Eventually, like Stinson's track record with the ladies, Henry began to brush up against all-time records.

He preferred going for the gusto, and it was with this superb strike against Sparta Prague in the 2005-06 Champions League group stages that he broke Wright's record of 185 goals for the club.

Henry had already scored his 185th goal earlier. I couldn't see him breaking the record with any goal other than this.

1. The Invincibles of 2003-04

The 49-match league unbeaten run, smashing Nottingham Forest's previous record of 42, was unfathomable.

What made it all the more wondrous was the fact that Arsenal were able to seal the 2003-04 league title against Tottenham at White Hart Lane. "Won 36, drawn 13" never sounded so good, when it led to claiming the title on that arena in full view of the River Thames.

And leading the charge that season was "Titi," who won numerous plaudits after scoring 30 league goals (39 in all competitions). A sensational return for what was, for all intents and purposes, an unforgettable season.

That season, Thierry Henry was a man apart, wending his way through defenses with a fluid grace that was coupled so brilliantly with a ruthless streak. Once he got going on a run, there was little chance that the opposing defense was going to stop him. As "killer" of a combination as you're likely to see in the annals of footballing lore.

This remains my fondest memory of an Arsenal season, and it was made all the more memorable because of Henry's myriad of exploits.

There are undoubtedly plenty of worthy moments to choose from when thinking of Henry's best during his time with Arsenal, but these are 10 of my favorites.

I would love to hear your own.