Henry in a hurry as Gunners accept gifts

Having scored a bucketful of goals on their last two visits to Highbury, Charlton Athletic found there was a hole in their pail yesterday as they gifted Arsenal two first-half goals that easily settled this match. The result leaves the Premiership leaders, who were able to make six changes from the Champions' League line-up, eight points clear with just nine games left and puts into perspective Charlton's own tentative European ambitions.

The goals owed much to Thierry Henry's pace and guile, although the Frenchman also showed his more petulant side and was perhaps fortunate to only escape with a booking after kicking out at Scott Parker. "He had a few minutes when I was a bit scared that he could over-react," Arsène Wenger admitted afterwards as he celebrated collecting his 500th point as Arsenal manager.

For Arsenal it was the perfect domestic fillip following their frustrations in Amsterdam for which Wenger countered they had received an unfair level of criticism. Having struck a post after a defensive error by Mark Fish – his first of several – Henry found space down the left and attacked into the box where he cleverly crossed with the outside of his boot for Francis Jeffers to score. Quite how the Arsenal striker had found himself so unattended will have angered the Charlton manager Alan Curbishley, who also suggested – with some justification – that Jeffers appeared offside. "I was disappointed with the goals, they were very sloppy," Curbishley said.

The second, just before the interval, settled matters and again owed much to a swift Arsenal counter-attack – the kind of move they have been denied in Europe by teams less willing than Charlton to attack. Henry, revelling in playing behind Jeffers, picked up the ball at speed on halfway and ran to the edge of the area where his cross came off a disorientated Chris Powell into the path of Fredrik Ljundberg. The Swede, making his first start since December, prodded the ball against the post and the rebound was nodded in by Robert Pires.

For the Frenchman, it was his 10th goal in 13 league starts since he also returned from injury. Dean Kiely had earlier denied him and the Charlton goalkeeper pulled off another fine block in the second half to thwart the substitute Sylvain Wiltord. Luke Young then made an extraordinary intervention to beat Jeffers to the ball as it appeared inevitable that the striker would tap home after Edu's shot had squirmed under Kiely.

Charlton – seven goals in their last two visits to Highbury – were strangely subdued, as if burdened by expectation. None more so than Parker, who is in such form that he would have felt, in the absence of Patrick Vieira, that here was a chance to dominate. Instead, he only fitfully contributed, although his team appeared more threatening when he was in possession. After a composed first quarter, in which Shaun Bartlett was prominent, the visitors failed to draw a save from David Seaman, although Fish hit the side-netting with a free header in the second half.

"Their reputation is proceeding them at the moment," Curbishley said of Arsenal afterwards. "Teams can come to Highbury and be beaten before the start. Everything we fashioned, they thwarted. When you come here you have to have a couple of things go for you. We didn't have that bit of luck." The fear for him is that his team, who play Newcastle United next, may fade as they did in the run-in to last season. For Wenger, any fear has surely been banished. "It is how we do at Highbury that will make the difference now," he said ominously.

Goals: Jeffers (26) 1-0; Pires (45) 2-0.

Arsenal (4-4-2): Seaman 5; Touré 5, Van Bronckhorst 6, Keown 5, Campbell 7; Ljungberg 5 (Wiltord 5, 65), Parlour 4, Edu 6, Pires 6 (Gilberto Silva 5, 69); Jeffers 6, Henry 8. Substitutes not used: Warmuz (gk), Cygan, Pennant.

Charlton Athletic (4-4-2): Kiely 6; Young 6, Powell 4 (Konchesky, 78), Fish 4, Fortune 4; Kishishev 6, Euell 6, Jensen 5, Parker 6 (Svensson, 87); Bartlett 5 (Johansson 4, 59) Lisbie 5. Substitutes not used: Roberts (gk), El Khalej.

Referee: R Styles (Hampshire) 4.

Booking: Arsenal: Henry.

Man of the match: Henry.

Attendance: 38,015.