Arteta guided Arsenal to their first Premier League title in 22 years last season, while the Gunners narrowly missed out on winning the Champions League as they were beaten by Paris Saint-Germain in the final in May.
Despite their success, Arsenal have been accused of being over-reliant on set-pieces and were criticised after having just 24.7 per cent possession against PSG – the lowest registered by a team in a Champions League final since records began in 2004.
During an interview with RMC Sports’ Jerome Rothen, Henry was asked if he was irked by the negativity Arsenal have received since winning the Premier League title and has likened the team to Diego Simeone’s Atletico Madrid side.
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‘It’s not that it annoyed me, it’s that at one point it took Mikel three-and-a-half, four years to be competitive, more or less. It’s not easy to create a team but the leaders believed in him and gave him time and he’s shown he’s a good coach,’ Henry replied.
‘Now, we were know for not being combative, that teams could just walk all over us, do whatever they wanted, but we play football. That was the discussion about Arsenal.
Thierry Henry says Mikel Arteta should be respected for winning the Premier League title (Getty)
‘At a certain point, you’ve got to get ahead of Liverpool and City, so the guy [Arteta] is working, he’s trying to find a way to overtake City. Suddenly, we’re tough, we dominate, it’s hard to create chances against us, we don’t get walked all over, but now they are saying they are not playing pretty.
‘For me, it had been a long time since the team won the league, so at some point, you have to find a way to actually win it.
‘Listen, I understand the debate, it’s not about that, but at a certain point, when you know that’s just how we play, that’s our profile… let’s stop with the question.
‘People kept asking me if I was surprised by our approach in the Champions League final, I said, ‘no’. They did that all the time through the year. Maybe not all year round but against teams of this calibre.
‘But it’s not malicious, it’s just a method of operating. I’ve seen teams win everything playing like that, I’ve seen teams win by playing well.
‘So at one point I didn’t understand the debate. If you watch our team play, and generally away from home we’re solid, we don’t concede much, the goals we do let in usually come from specific plays, so there you go.
‘But then you lose 3-0 against Brighton and they don’t defend. It means they did something exceptional, it was the first time in I don’t know how long that Arsenal conceded three and didn’t score.
‘You don’t have to love it but you must respect him. He brought back a title, I respect that.
‘Perhaps it’s not in the same style, not all of the time, but for a while teams in Europe didn’t like playing against Atletico Madrid – that’s us. The teams don’t like playing against Arsenal. At one point, over four or five years it was, ‘oh no, it’s Atletico, it’s going to be hard to score’.’
