Should Thierry Henry score his first goal for Arsenal against Manchester United tomorrow, one can expect a response not so much in the style of Nicolas Anelka, whom he was bought to replace, as that of another kind of striker, Prince Naseem Hamed.

Henry is a player who wears his heart much closer to his short-sleeved shirt. "Very enthusiastic," is how he describes himself on the field, so one can expect that first goal, whenever it comes, to be greeted with a celebration that reflects the relief and joy it will bring to the most expensive player to wear Arsenal's colours.

Henry, Arsenal's first £10 million player, has been regarded as a winger but Arsenal's manager Arsene Wenger is convinced his best position is as a central striker.

Wenger says: "If you asked him, he couldn't tell you what his best position is. But with his power, as well as his pace, he can push you. I don't know why you would put a player with his physique on the wing. You have to at least try to play him down the middle." Similar words from Wenger to Henry in private proved so persuasive that he almost entered Highbury legend by scoring with his first touch as a Gunner, sending a dipping volley just over the Leicester crossbar in the season's opening Premiership match after coming on as a substitute.

Henry (22), was not so impressive at Sunderland last week, though the home side's policy of a draw at all costs did hinder flair. And he admits that he is still adjusting to the pace of the English game after his years at Monaco and Juventus.

He says: "I have to get fitter and find my best form. I still haven't adjusted to the Premiership and a different style of football does take time. I have always watched English football and I like the fact that it is very quick. When you actually play in it, it is even quicker."

Henry, like Dennis Bergkamp and Patrick Vieira, hopes that checking into the Premiership after a spell in Italy's Serie A will prove therapeutic. Not that Henry ever wanted to join Juventus. After helping France to win the World Cup last year, he shocked Monaco, to whom he was still under contract for three years, by demanding to join Arsenal and was later fined £50,000 for signing an illegal contract with Real Madrid. Does that sound like anyone else who has been at Highbury recently? Monaco sold him to Juventus instead, just as Arsenal had planned to do with Anelka until the colour of Real Madrid's money convinced them that their complaints about an earlier, illegal approach had been all in their imagination.

One of the reasons for Henry's disenchantment at Monaco was the small crowds. "The crowds in England are fantastic. In the game against Leicester, the fans stayed behind us, even when we were losing. In France and Italy, if the score had been 0-0 at half-time, the crowd would have turned against us."

Wenger, though, sees Henry, Davor Suker and Nwanko Kanu as rivals for the two striking positions ahead of Bergkamp. And against United, at least, Henry has the chance to prove that possession is ninth-tenths of the law.

Suker, yet to kick a ball for the club, will arrive at Highbury only at noon tomorrow, after playing for Croatia against Malta tonight. Having also played in Croatia's emotional 0-0 draw against Yugoslavia in midweek, he is unlikely to be in the physical or mental state to make his debut against the treble winners.

He is not sure, either, whether his captain Tony Adams, fit and available again, should be risked as a substitute, as inspiring as the sight of him sitting in the Arsenal dug-out would be to his colleagues. "I will leave him out if I can because I don't want to risk him getting injured again," said Wenger.

"If we were playing anybody else but Manchester United, I would not even consider using him."

Wenger, at least publicly, is unworried by Henry's failure to convert the chances that have come his way so far. He insists that Arsenal's goalkeepers have been fishing his shots out of the net in training, saying: "He is quite a good finisher." Then, perhaps thinking of a former employee, he says: "He's loving it here. He's a happy boy."