Arsenal suffer Henry blow

Thierry Henry is facing more time on the sidelines after tearing his stomach and groin muscles as Arsenal bowed out of the Champions League.PSV Eindhoven progressed to the quarter-finals of European club football's most prestigious competition after they consigned the Gunners to a 2-1 aggregate defeat.A goal at each end by Brazilian Alex ensured the Ashburton Grove leg ended 1-1 and means that last season's beaten finalists will have to start picking through the ruins of another trophyless season.Arsenal's misery was made complete by the news that Henry, 67th-minute substitute, has suffered a fresh injury setback and Wenger said: "This defeat is difficult to take and it's a massive disappointment."My thinking behind putting Henry on the bench was, as could be seen, he was not ready to start the game because of his hamstring problem. Now, again, he is out for a few weeks. It is a different injury, his stomach muscle and his groin, and it will be scanned. I think he did it was when he crossed the ball."Having lost the Carling Cup final and now been knocked out of the FA Cup and Champions League in less than a fortnight, Wenger must lift his beleagured men as they bid to seal their place in Europe's premier club competition next season with a top-four finish in the Premiership.Wenger, whose men have won nine out of their last 12 league games, said: "We have to secure a place in the Champions League and that's far from done because we have responsibilities to finish as high as we can. We can overtake Liverpool."There are lots of positives but, of course, at the moment we are more focused on the negatives because in the last two weeks it has been horrendous for us. But that's what a season can be like at a big club."© Independent Television News Limited 2007. All rights reserved.

ITN | March 8, 2007

Tags:. .moment. .lost. .course. .ready. .picking