Henry Gamble Goes Wrong

Arsène Wenger admitted last night that the past two weeks had been "horrendous", after his side were eliminated from the FA Cup and Champions League as well as losing the Carling Cup final, but he must now confront the reality that he will be without Thierry Henry for the foreseeable future after the Arsenal striker succumbed to yet another injury.

Henry, who has been dogged by sciatica this season and began this game on the bench, now faces at least four weeks on the sidelines after it was confirmed last night that he had torn his groin and his stomach muscles during his cameo appearance at the end. "It's a different injury to the previous one," said Wenger. "I think he did it when he tried to cross the ball near the end.

"It's been a very difficult season for him, very sad. You could see he wasn't ready physically to start the game but I hoped he might offer something different if he was needed from the bench. But now he's out for a few more weeks."

Arsenal will need the France international fit for their run-in, with their season's objective reduced to chasing Liverpool for a top-three finish and, ultimately, qualification for next season's Champions League.

Wenger said there were positives in his young side's progress this term, even if the campaign will not yield silverware. But recovering from the setbacks of the past 10 days will be a challenge.

"We have to secure the place in the Champions League and that's far from done," said the Arsenal manager. "We can overtake Liverpool. There are a lot of positives with this team but at the moment we're focused on the negatives. The past two weeks have been horrendous. It was a cruel night but you could see that the games have caught up with us. We were less sharp than two weeks ago, physically, and we lacked quality in the final third. I don't feel we failed in the Carling Cup. We're out of the FA Cup but that's a minor disappointment compared to tonight."