With barely 15 minutes remaining on the clock, with a place in the WC Final's at stake, an incident took place. An incident which apart from deciding the eventual outcome of the game, became instrumental in tainting one of the most decorated sportsperson of our times.

An 11Gunners Exclusive on the 'Hand of Henry' and Why he still is the GOD for Us Gooners..

If there were a player born, who could lay claims to have 'Been There, Done That', many would raise hands. Henry, instead has, 'Been There, WON That'. Be it France, or Arsenal or Barcelona, this guy has surmounted every major honour, both personal and team-wise, there is. You name it, and Titi has won it. He did the rare 'Double' of World Cup '98 and Euro '00, with the Les Blues, he became an 'Invincible' with the Gunners in '04, and most recently he did a 'Treble' with the Catalans. Even the great Zizou, who arguably is the best player of our generation, has not received the sheer range of accolades that Henry has. But despite the above, one moment of madness, is seemingly about to tarnish all of the above. 15 years of pure magic going down the drain and Henry being labeled a 'Cheat' in tribute to his legacy? Well I won't let that happen till the time I'm given time down here! Never..

When Henry handed the ball at the goal-mouth and passed it to Gallas en route to goal and WC '10, he must have immediately known what he just did. Its his celebrating the goal, which is supposedly irking most neutrals and almost certainly all the Irish. C'mon people get a life. Henry, despite his brilliance, ever since Zizou's retirement, has had to play with a team with almost no flair, a coach who has no clue of the game and all this when his Club Barca, have played galactic football around the same time. He could almost sense the rails coming off the Les Blues after the Irish took attack to the opposition all through the game. One could argue, that his handling the ball and making sure his team won the game, come what may, shows his being a Winner all through. And it is this winning mentality of his, which allowed him to get away with the apparent mischief. But no arguments can conceal the fact that Henry came out in the open and accepted his blunder. This is what the Greatest Gunner of all time had to say after the game:

"To be honest, it was handball. The next thing I know the ball hit my hand, my arm even, and the ball was right in front of me and I played it. There was a hand, but I'm not the referee. “‘Toto’ [Sebastien Squillaci] went up for the header. I was behind two Irishmen. The ball bounced and touched my hand, the referee didn't whistle and I played on, but of course it touched my hand."

Before I put my point across, let me sight some examples here. Diego Maradona, Rivaldo, Luis Figo, Steven Gerrard, Wayne Rooney, Didier Drogba, Ruud van Nistelrooy, Sergio Aguero, Cristiano Ronaldo and even Lionel Messi, all of them have something in common. Yes! You guessed it right. They are all proven so-called 'Cheats' who have dived, scuffled and handed stuff despite their brilliance. Likes of Maradona, Messi and Ageuro have literally added another dimension to the game by handling the ball into the net. Even Anelka for that matter, dived horrendously in the same game i.e. France vs Ireland, but it largely went unnoticed. Primarily because no penalty was given, and more importantly because Anelka ain't fraction of the player Henry has been over the last decade. He is good, but no match for TH14. And as they say:

"If you Shoot, Shoot for the Star"

Only here, they seem to have shot the 'Star' himself! Its a pity. A disgrace on the 'Beautiful Game', that one its most prolific and dedicated exponents is having to face all this. If Fifa can't make certain amends to the game, if they can't introduce Video aids or even scope of Challenges (2-3 per game/ per side) ala Tennis, in this Pro-Tech age of ours, such mistakes are bound to happen in the spur-of-the-moment. I bet 90% of the strikers would have done the same as Henry did. I also bet that none from that 90% would have had the audacity to come out and accept their mistakes. Henry didn't just say sorry in interviews after the game, he actually went up to the Ref right then and told him that he handed the ball. What else could he have done?

"The Ref's got it all wrong. The Fourth Official got it all wrong. Fifa got it all wrong."

Henry is being made a scapegoat for all their non-challance and him being immensely popular with fans across the globe, only makes it logical to add fuel to fire.

"Henry accepted his mistake and that makes him Great. He helped France get hrough to South Africa '10, that makes him Legend. We worship him, that makes him GOD."

GOD never cheats, and so didn't Henry. Forget what the world says, we love you Titi and shall always do the same. Hail King Henry..