Arsenal fans rejoiced when their hero, Thierry Henry, found the back of the net with minutes to go in their Champions League game against CSKA Moscow last night. Henry turned to celebrate, only for the refs whistle to echo in his ears. It had been ruled out. What for? Handball. Now, we all know Henry likes to play up for the cameras with his dramatisation of situations, however, this time, the pure shock on his face was entirely reasonable. There was no handball, and Arsenal went on to lose their first European game this season.

When interviewed, he expressed his anger quite clearly. He claimed the referee was unfairly biased against Arsenal in making the decision. "We're not a big club," he stated. "What does it mean? That means what I'm saying - we are not a big club.”

The question is, how seriously can Henry’s argument be taken. After losing to Barcelona in the Champions League final, Henry came out with similar comments. Despite the referee awarding Arsenal a free kick for an Eboue dive, which lead to Arsenal’s only goal of the game, Henry blasted the referee, claiming he was an Barca fan, and didn’t penalise their diving. In the World Cup that followed, Henry dived and grabbed his face in a bid to get Puyol sent off.

What’s the moral here? What goes around comes around… and we should all expect to Henry to make his point by handballing in the not too distant future.

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