[theo kawala]

Captaincy has matured Thierry Henry's game according to Arsène Wenger.

The French striker is starting his second season with the armband having taken over from Patrick Vieira in the summer of 2005. His manager believes the responsibility has done him good.

"Different positions watch the game differently," said Wenger. "For example when you are a striker you are served by all the other players. When you are a goalkeeper you watch everything. But Thierry is very intelligent and he can put himself in the position of all the other departments then analyse them.

"Before he looked up and just thought 'OK, Bergkamp has the ball I'll go'. Now he has to think about the whole global part of the game. It has forced him into more maturity."