Arsenal 3 Sheffield Utd 0: Arsenal out of blocks as Gallas opens his account

Sheffield steel is no protection against Henry's magic

"There's only one Arsène Wenger" chanted the delighted Emirates fans in early celebration of their manager's 10th anniversary in charge of Arsenal later this week and the first Premiership win in their new home. By that stage of the second half the goals were raining in, Thierry Henry was in his majestic pomp and Sheffield's gallant resistance had collapsed.

It all bodes well for Tuesday and the visit of Porto in the European Champions' League, especially after that cameo by Henry on his return to the side from injury. He set up an opening goal for William Gallas's maiden goal for the club which was pure ballet in its execution, persuaded United's captain, Phil Jagielka, to slice into his own goal and then added a third with a header brilliant in its simplicity.

For more than an hour, however, Sheffield had frustrated them with a solid exhibition of organised defence, massing behind the ball and denying Arsenal space and time. As United's manager, Neil Warnock, pointed out, "We can't come here and play wide, attacking football because they would get double figures."

There was not much for Warnock to celebrate in his 1,000th outing as a manager (354 of them with his present club), and he admitted it. "I can't complain - they were obviously better than us. They will be better than most teams who come here." And he also tipped the hat to Henry: "A great player, I just love everything about him."

Without a win since moving up to the Premiership, Warnock played Rob Hulse alone at the front and set out to exasperate the opposition. This was accomplished rather impressively, so impressively that Wenger admitted, "When we didn't score after 15 minutes it started to play on our minds." It was the excellence of Ian Bennett in United's goal which did more than anything to instil that uncertainty. One save, achieved while going the wrong way, to paw a Henry header away for a corner, was outstanding, though Sheffield had their chances, early and late in the opening half.

First, a Chris Armstrong free-kick got through the wall and took Jens Lehmann by surprise, the keeper saving at full stretch. Then, just before the interval, Mikele Leigertwood beat him with a deflected volley, but the whistle had gone a split second earlier because of foot-up by Hulse. "A lucky moment for us," conceded Wenger.

While the massed ranks of Sheffield chanted derisively "England, England" at an Arsenal team containing not one home-bred player, the Foreign Legion gradually gained full control as Henry dropped a little deeper to mastermind proceedings.

The breakthrough came in the 65th minute. After spending a moment on the edge of the penalty area considering his options, Henry lifted the ball forward in a gentle arc towards Francesc Fabregas, who stretched high to get a toe on the ball. It curved in turn to Gallas, who supplied a full-blooded finish with a volley.

Within five minutes Sheffield were broken by a second goal. Henry, on the left of the penalty box, shimmied past a couple of challengers to deliver a cross which Jagielka flicked into the corner of his own net.

Now the floodgates were open and United extremely disunited at the back in the face of Henry's genius. With 10 minutes left, Emmanuel Eboué, booked minutes earlier, surged down the right to get over a centre. It was a measure of the way Sheffield had fallen apart that there was no one within feet of Henry as he put away the header beautifully, accepting the massed congratulations of his team-mates.

He deserved them. It was a virtuoso showing.