Arsenal FC: Right Time (for Nik To Step Up)

Wednesday, 24 February 10

As a lodger of mine used to say as he clapped his hands together every Wednesday morning "middle of the week." It's been a quiet week and the main talking point today is the fact that Manure managed to beat West Ham 3-0 last night to go five points ahead of us having played a game more.

It means we really cannot afford a slip up at Stoke on Saturday evening just to keep the gap to them at two points and with Chelsea playing at 12.45 at home to Man City we will know exactly how far ahead of us they are, too. Of course, everybody's fantasy football captain this week was Rooney and his 15 points doubled to 30 to make my team's score of 69 points for the week look respectable but still I lost ground overall.

With only eight games this weekend, I'll have to select my team very carefully as I try to put together the same sort of comeback that Arsenal are attempting at the moment. If Arsenal manage it, and I don't, I don't think I'll be too bothered.

Our lone fit striker spoke about how he wants to repay the bosses faith in him by deciding not to sign a new striker in the transfer window. He said "Yes and that's really important, all I have to do now is show him he made the right choice. I'm sure he has and I've got to show it on the pitch. It's difficult obviously being out, despite whoever else is out. It's difficult. Coming back for me was really important."

He missed three months with what seemed like a short-term injury at first, but once the Ashburton Grove medical centre got their hands on him, the timescale changed dramatically. He now has four goals in all competitions this season in 11 starts and eight sub appearances. If we are going to claw back the lead that Manure and Chelsea have, we will need him to score some more goals in the run in.

I suppose it's possible that Eduardo will be back in time for Saturday, as he has now been out for four weeks with what the manager called a small, small injury. I do think that Saturday's trip to Stoke is more suited to Bendtner as he can help out defensively at set pieces as well as being more capable of taking the kicking he's bound to get from them.

He also spoke about the player's belief that they can win the league this season and he said that it has never diminished. He said "Of course we believe. We believed at the start of the season and we still believe it now and until the end of the season. We'll fight every minute of the way." It's good to hear the players being positive about our chances and I hope they can keep up that positivity on the pitch for the remaining 11 games.

There's a long way to go between here and another 11 wins in a row, but having got the first two under our belts, regardless of the circumstances, the confidence that we can keep the run going seems to be growing. Bendtner has a lot of belief in his own ability and he's getting the opportunity to show us all why he believes he is so goods at the moment. I'm not sure if he is that good but I hope he proves me wrong.

I was reading Arsenal Adam's blog yesterday and he said he's been posting on the BleacherReport as well and getting quite a few reads and comments to go with it so I'm going to give it a go for the next while and see if I can get a reaction. I've said since last July or August when Oleole changed things around that's it's been harder to get my blog noticed and we all want to be noticed of course.

Here's a little bit of what Bendtner can do.

And to finish today's title track from the Mighty Diamonds. It's the right time for Bendtner to step up and show us why he has so much confidence in his own ability by scoring the goals we need.

See You Tomorrow.