'I squared up to Thierry Henry – the Arsenal dressing room had a fight every day'
David Bentley has revealed he once squared up to Thierry Henry during one of Arsenal 's training sessions. Arsenal, under Arsene Wenger in the early noughties, matched Manchester United as the most dominant team in England.
Their wealth of attacking talent at the time, which included Henry, Robert Pires, Freddie Ljungberg and Dennis Bergkamp, meant they won the Premier League in 2001/02 and 2003/04, along with three FA Cups between 2002 and 2005.
Equally crucial to their success was their grit, aggression and strong mentality, which often spilled over and resulted in clashes on the pitch. That was clear on matchdays as the Gunners racked up 33 red cards between 2000 and 2005.
But, according to several Arsenal legends in recent years, training sessions at London Colney were just as vicious, if not more heated, than games against rivals. Bentley was an academy graduate who had not long been promoted to the first team, meaning he witnessed firsthand the good and the bad among one of English football's greatest ever squads.
Speaking on Undr The Cosh, the former winger recalled the carnage he witnessed as a teenager during training, including some of his own altercations with club superstar Henry and team captain Patrick Vieira. Bentley began by saying: 'Every day [there] was a fight.
"You talk about personalities. No chance. You've got Ray Parlour - loves it, lunatic, beautiful man. Then you've got Martin Keown, Dennis Bergkamp's an animal - he'd kick the c**p out of everyone.
'Giovanni van Bronckhorst - I used to come up against him and I'd come away with black eyes and bloodied eyes, he used to elbow the life out of me. Fights. Pascal Cygan against Kolo Toure was the best fight I've ever seen on the training ground. Two animals going at each other. To try to break them up we needed the whole team. Vieira stamping on me.'
Bentley described the shocking moment he offered to fight star player Henry, considered at the time to be one of the best players in the world, before stating his Arsenal team-mates were more invested in winning small-sided training ground matches than weekend games - such was the quality within the squad.
Bentley, who later joined rivals Tottenham, said: 'I squared up to Thierry Henry, ripped off my gloves, 'Come on, let's have it.' What they did - Wenger, [assistant manager] Pat Rice and the coaching staff - was put on seven-a-sides everyday.
'The dressing room was more concerned about winning the seven-aside tournaments than the game on Saturday. It was hell for leather and it was just slide tackles and fighting. Especially in the last game, that's where I squared up to Thierry, bless him. I would have got a good hiding as well!'
He went on to say: 'I gave it a bit of banter with Martin Keown too, I scored a header against him and said, 'Martin, you're getting a bit old now, aren't you son?' Worst thing I could have done. The ball then came in and I was shielding it, he grabbed me by the neck and threw me from behind. My shirt ripped and I'm going, 'Gaffer! Pat!' and they'd say, 'Get on with it!''
Bentley then shed light on an incident during a training camp in Austria where he sat in Vieira's seat during breakfast and refused to let the Arsenal skipper have it back. His bold move earned the respect of the Frenchman, but he admitted that it meant he was not invited to team outings and was 'snapped' by Vieira every training session for a few months.
Bentley was sent out on loan to Norwich City in 2004/05 and, desiring more regular football, joined Blackburn Rovers in August 2005, with the move becoming permanent in January 2006. Despite the regular bust-ups, Bentley insists that such needle was the 'key ingredient' in Arsenal going unbeaten in the 2003/04 season.
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