'Pires lucky not to get a right hander' for THAT 'arrogant' Arsenal penalty

On 22nd October 2005, against Manchester City, former Arsenal duo Robert Pires and Thierry Henry were trying to implement Johan Cruyff's famous penalty for Ajax in 1982.

Unfortunately, they bundled the penalty and were ridiculed for the mess up.

Danny Mills was on the Highbury pitch that day as a Manchester City player and told talkSPORT the incident still irritates him.

"Robert Pires was lucky that there wasn't a right hander coming across him." Mills recalled to the Breakfast Show.

The north London outfit were in cruise control, and had the opportunity to double their lead when Dutchman Dennis Bergkamp was fouled. Pires was the penalty taker, but tried to be creative and roll the ball forward, for Henry to run and execute the finish.

Arsenal's all-time leading goalscorer Henry still believes that compatriot Pires should have had the opportunity to retake his spotkick.

"That penalty should have been retaken, because the ball never moved from the spot," he told Sky Sports.

"It didn't, and I don't know what the ref did or what Danny Mills was doing.

"On that one, the only mistake I did was I didn't [take] it. I should have passed it to Robert. We did it so many times in training, but in training everything is easy.

"I thought the big man Robert wouldn't have lost his composure. But he did.

"I don't know why he tried to roll it. If the goalkeeper went diving, maybe I would have dummied it, but maybe I would have passed it back to Robert." said the 44-year-old.

Mills, though, pointed out the risks in trying to be too clever.

"I think it's the arrogance of trying it. If it goes well, fair enough," he continued. "But, if you try something that audacious and get it that wrong - it was a complete mess up. It was awful - it was terrible!

"Robert Pires rode his studs across the top of the ball and the ball moved, they knew it shouldn't be retaken at the time.

"But 1-0, you can't be doing that. It was just bizarre, and if they had been 5-0 up, tried it and scored - you go away, and we just walk off with our tail between our legs."

Despite the mix up. Arsenal ended up winning 1-0 through Pires' first spotkick in the 61st minute to secure the victory.

Speaking in 2018, Pires said he didn't regret trying the fanciful penalty.

"It was Thierry Henry's idea and of course it was my mistake, because I missed the ball.

"I regret the pass but not the penalty. It was a good idea, the people need to watch something new and the penalty between me and Thierry was a new thing," he said.

"Sometimes in football, I know it was a big mistake, but sometimes you need some fantasy on the field. For me it was a good fantasy but unfortunately I missed the pass but it was a good idea."