So much for romantic endings then.
The stage was set for Thierry Henry to wave arriverderci to Arsenal with a glorious swansong at the San Siro.
Instead he was left an embarrassed spectator; trumped, like his sorry team-mates, by the arrogant AC Milan peacocks Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Kevin-Prince Boating.
Henry’s last 45 minutes in a Gunners shirt will take a while to forget.
It was sad that he should be implicated in a performance as bad as anything Arsenal have served up in Europe.
Still it was fun while it lasted seeing the mercurial Frenchman once more strutting his stuff. Three goals in half-a-dozen sub appearances – including two winners – entirely justified Arsene Wenger’s call to bring him back.
Fittingly, Henry’s final touch in the Premier League was a goal at Sunderland.
If only he had boarded the next plane to New York, rather than Italy …
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