Thierry Henry doesn’t plan to follow Patrick Vieira out of Arsenal.
The star striker instead wants a new contract with Arsenal to coincide with the captaincy he inherited from Vieira.
He’ll lead his team into Millennium Stadium at Cardiff, Wales, on Sunday when the FA Cup winners meet league champions Chelsea in the Community Shield, the traditional English-season curtain-raiser.
”As long as they want me here, I’ll stay here,” said Henry, who has two years left on his contract. ”The talks are on. All the time, people question my desire and my commitment for the club. I always say I do something that I love.
”The only thing I’m demanding is to play and try to lead the team to the silverware. I didn’t come to football to win money. There is money in the game, but sometimes the game is more important.”
Arsenal beat Manchester United 3-1 to win last season’s Community Shield, when they were defending champions. This time last year, Arsenal were midway through an unbeaten league streak that stretched to 49 matches. When that ended in October, so did Arsenal’s title hopes, and the Gunners finished 12 points behind Chelsea.
”You need to create your luck, you can’t sit down and wait for it, and they [Chelsea] were creating it,” Henry said.
Henry knows that without Vieira, who was sold to Juventus last month after nine years at the club, Arsenal will have to work harder, and not just wait for Chelsea to stumble.
”I’m sure when we finished the season unbeaten last year, people were saying the same thing: How can you catch them?” Henry said. ”A team is really fragile, sometimes things don’t go your way, and it can take a month to get back on track. Maybe that can happen to Chelsea. And if it doesn’t, we all have to be strong to compete with them.”
Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho wants to start the season with a victory, even though the Blues have beaten Arsenal only once in 20 meetings.
He also expects Chelsea to defend their title successfully, but he predicts the gap will be smaller.
”It was incredible what we did last season and everyone else was more worried about talking about Chelsea blips rather than their own form,” Mourinho said.
”They thought they could lose points because we would lose points — ‘No problem, they will have a blip,’ they said. But this season they won’t speak any more about that. This season they will think only about themselves and will be better.”
Arsenal will be without defender Sol Campbell, who is still recovering from the various injuries that restricted him to 15 games last season. Midfielder Gilberto is not match-fit, and the Gunners will likely give their only new signing, Alexander Hleb, a run in midfield.
Chelsea have signed Shaun Wright-Phillips, Asier del Horno and Lassana Diarra in the off season, and they could all make an appearance on Sunday. However, until the newcomers assert themselves, they will always take a back seat whenever Mourinho is around.
”I am at the moment one of the best in the world and to be one of the best ever, I have to keep winning, to keep winning things,” Mourinho said. ”I cannot stop — that is the aim, to keep being successful.” — Sapa-AP