Meet Arsenal's New Twenty Five a Season Striker: Nicklas Bendtner

It’s 4.30 pm on a Saturday afternoon at the Emirates, the pitch is cloaked in sunlight and Arsenal are up 2-0 against Manchester City. The opposition has barely threatened in the second half and Arsenal continue to produce wave after wave of attacking football that is easier on the eye than a house party at the playboy mansion.

The fourth official is forced into action. It’s time for Emmanuel Adebayor to leave the pitch after scoring twice on his comeback from injury. As he runs off of the pitch he is given a rapturous applause from the Arsenal faithful as the team are coasting towards a result that will see them move six points ahead of an Aston Villa team that once upon a time seemed out of sight.

What could possibly ruin this afternoon?

On comes his replacement and the answer is clear. The man in question is Nicklas Bentdner of course, but he hasn’t ruined this afternoon, the groans of discontent and the needless abuse from fellow supporters—that’s what ruins the afternoon.

The lanky Dane seems to be getting a raw deal from the Arsenal following and it seems like he is currently edging ahead of Emmanuel Eboue in a two horse race to claim the title of the fans least favourite player award.

Sitting in the stands you hear a variation of opinions on the sport that we all love. On Saturday a man in front of me claimed that “Theo Walcott is having a blinder and causing so many problems down the right hand side” whereas a man behind me often stated that the same player was “a waste of space” and that “he hasn’t made a decent decision all day”. A woman next to me claimed that these two men were both right and wrong and that “he had caused problems, but his decision making at times has been terrible”—she was right.

That said there seems to be a lot more consistency with the views on Bendtner, and it’s a damning verdict for the kid from Copenhagen. Most agree that he isn’t good enough to wear the red and white of the Arsenal.

Are the fans being too harsh? He is a frustrating player to watch at times but I believe the potential is there. My credibility as a football supporter may be questioned when I state that Arsenal may well have a twenty five goals a season striker in the player that I heard one fan call “Nicklas Bambi” this weekend.

So let’s look at the stats. It may surprise you to hear that Bendtner has scored twenty one goals for Arsenal in just forty starts. Of course with sub appearances, this ratio of one in two rises to one in four, but as football fans I think we sometimes underestimate how difficult it can be to make an impact off of the bench.

Age is also a factor, many forget he’s only twenty-one and he is still an improving player. His record at this age is quite impressive in comparison to some of the other strikers that have graced the pitch at Highbury and the Emirates.

Adebayor may be the toast of the town at the moment after his stunning goal against Villarreal, but this wasn’t always the case for the man from Togo.

Moving to the club at the age of twenty-two, he was often subjected to the sort of criticism that Bendtner currently receives from both fans and the media alike. The truth is that it wasn’t until last season that people started to notice that Adebayor has become more of an asset than a liability. He stopped being cursed for his clumsiness and lack of composure in front of goal. Bendtner is now being accused of the same.

Then we have Thierry Henry, probably the best player to ever have played for the club. When Arsenal signed him as a twenty one year-old, he had only netted twenty three times in one hundred and twenty one career appearances. When Wenger had finished with him he was one of the most prolific strikers that had ever played in the Premier League.

The point I am trying to make is that Messi, Ronaldo or Fabregas aside, inconsistency can be seen in the game of most young players.

This has been Bendtner’s problem—he has been very inconsistent. On occasion he has put in great performances for Arsenal and away games at Bolton and West Brom in particular spring to mind. Unfortunately, there have been a string of poor performances to accompany this with missed chances and misplaced passes really underlining how frustrating this player can be.

To be ruthless, it can be said that a lot of Bendtner’s goals have come against lesser opposition. A lot of goals have come in the Carling Cup and his better performances have often been against teams struggling at the bottom of the league. However, watching him play I feel that the potential is there for all to see.

Going back to his last appearance, on as a substitute against Manchester City at the weekend, the fans were treated to the Jekyll and Hyde ability of Nicklas Bendtner.

Moments after coming on he exquisitely controlled a sixty yard pass from Bacary Sagna and held the ball up well. Minutes later he used his strength well and showed good touches as he brought a ball down in the opposition half and laid the ball of to a teammate to set up an Arsenal attack. But then we saw the dark side of his game when he was played into a goal scoring position, had a poor first touch and blasted high and wide from close range. Sadly, they are the moments that his critics seem to remember.

So the question from most Arsenal fans is "what does Wenger see in him"? Wenger himself has said that a player can progress so much between the age of twenty one and twenty three and that he sees a world-class striker in Bendtner. Is he deluding himself? 

Personally I agree with Wenger, Bendtner does have a lot of positives in his game. He’s good in the air, strong, and holds the ball up well. He links the play together well at times, works hard, and his movement off the ball is very good. It is true that at he lacks composure in front of goal at times, but then he wouldn’t be the only young striker that has had this problem. Look at Adebayor. It may be a cliché but at least he’s getting into the goal scoring positions.

Furthermore, he’s confident, and while he has been criticised for it, albeit slightly harshly with the misquote from a Danish magazine interview coming to mind, this confidence will allow Bendtner to defy the boo-boys and become the player he wants to be because he has faith in his own ability.

Maybe Arsenal’s injury situation and bad luck with strikers in particular hasn’t helped Bendtner. I don’t think Wenger would have wanted Bendtner to play in as many games as he has this season, but he hasn’t really had a choice. The brutal honesty this season is that he isn’t yet good enough to be a regular in a side that wants to challenge for the title, but it doesn’t mean he will never be.

In an ideal world, Arsenal wouldn’t have had as many injuries as they did, and if so then Bendtner wouldn’t have been the immediate deputy when Adebayor or Van Persie were injured. That said, it’s happened and while it could have been good to see the player go out on loan and get experience at another Premier League team, he now has a lot of first team games behind him that will only benefit him moving into next season.

To say that next year he is going to hit twenty or more may be a step too far, but the potential is there. Maybe when he reaches Adebayor’s current age of twenty-five he will be scoring that many goals for the club consistently, and for seasons to come.