Henry delivers Arsenal Champions League verdict with three big reasons given

Thierry Henry believes Arsenal's 7-1 Champions League win over PSV Eindhoven will instil confidence in the team to compete for European glory.

In the middle of having to deal with an abrupt end to the Premier League title race, Arsenal are guaranteed to progress to the quarter-finals of the competition and could get a major boost before facing either Real Madrid or Atletico Madrid. The two Spanish giants went head-to-head at the Santiago Bernabeu on Tuesday night and Carlo Ancelotti's side will head into the second leg with a narrow 2-1 lead.

Despite being short on attacking options following injuries to Kai Havertz and Gabriel Jesus, Arsenal showed a collective performance, sharing goals all round. Martin Odegaard bagged a brace, Jurrien Timber, Ethan Nwaneri, Mikel Merino, Leandro Trossard and Riccardo Calafiori were all on the scoresheet for the visitors.

With the quarter-final ties taking place at the start of April, Arsenal could be boosted by the return of Bukayo Saka and Gabriel Martinelli, handing them a considerable chance at beating their next opponent.

In a chat with Jamie Carragher on CBS Sports, Henry believes Arsenal have three main things that can play in their favour: return from injured players, being strong defensively and being out of the title race. "Yes I do believe that [they could get past either Real Madrid or Atletico if injured players come back], this is why I called it," the Arsenal icon said.

"I'm just saying now is show us how you can do it against a good team, to [the players] coming back. No disrespect to Eindhoven, I really thought it was going to be difficult especially away from home but it was proven easy. They made it [look] easy, I think they had an outstanding game as you can see with the result but we all know that the league is over.

"You [Jamie Carragher] won that, apart from something crazy happens. But what I'm trying to say is that this game can maybe help [them] to be confident in this competition. But the game that you are after, it's Real Madrid or Atletico, sometimes I think the path to go to the final, can at times help, obviously on that one not. But if you want to win the competition, you have to go through these teams."