It was after a 5-1 victory over Middlesbrough that he watched from the substitutes’ bench that a 22-year-old Thierry Henry walked straight out of Highbury in his Arsenal tracksuit and caught a tube and then a Thameslink train back to St Albans to his temporary home at Sopwell House Hotel.

Henry had been at Arsenal for four months and, stuck behind Dennis Bergkamp, Nwankwo Kanu and Davor Suker, the young striker was yet to make his mark.

Unable to drive and still struggling with his English, Henry did not want to ask a team-mate for a lift back to his hotel room, instead favouring to be alone with his thoughts on public transport as he brooded over what he needed to do to become a success.

The rest is history, as Henry scored twice in Arsenal’s next Premier League game against Derby County and finished the season with 26 goals in all competitions before going on to become the club’s all-time leading scorer.

Now, 20 years later, Henry finds himself in a similar position of waiting to prove himself after being sacked just three months into his first job as a head coach at Monaco. The biggest difference, of course, is that the Frenchman no longer has the same control over his own destiny.