Nicklas Bendtner Shines As Arsenal Obliterates Porto

It's amazing, what a few days could do in football.

In the last few days, the entire footballing world were biting off the heels of Nicklas Bendtner, after that unlucky display against Burnely on Saturday.

To his credit, Bendtner was showing no signs of backing down, and exposed himself to more chances time and time again, knowing fully well that if he misses another chance, the critics will enjoy degrading the Dane international, despite him scoring two goals in the matches before for club and country.

Against Brunley, Bendtner showed tremendous bravery, despite the awful misses, the Dane did not hide, and also created chances for himself with great positioning, yet dreadful finishing.

It was apparent that the critics were gonna enjoy their review of the match.

Against Porto, however, Bendtner was superb, with great positioning and a quick response.

Perhaps the fans who do not like Bendtner, especially the Bendtner haters (apparently they're a cult, they even have a name. "The Nikki haters") will tell you that they were all absolute sitters that even they could've scored.

I beg to differ.

When Rooney scored such goals, the fans and critics hailed him like he was a genius. Bendtner deserves equal praise, it was all down to his positioning and responsiveness to get the goals needed, and he did.

Bendtner did not miss a single shot against Porto, and only one shot was saved by Helton, who was very unlucky to be playing against an on-form Arsenal side.

Bendtner scored his first hat-trick in his senior career, as well as being the first Gunner to score a hat-trick in Europe at home since Alan Smith, and the first player to score an Arsenal hat-trick in Europe since Henry in 2002.

The fans can't even dare to criticize Bendtner, seeing how he proved to be a big game player when needed.

His link up play was good, as well as his passes, he lacked creativity to create chances for his team mates, but that is to be expected from a striker.

Arsenal thrashed a helpless Porto side with five goals to nil, the first goal came through a headed pass from Arshavin to Nasri, then Nasri played a through ball back to Arshavin, and the Porto players miss-judged the tackle, ending up hitting their goal keeper, and an aware Nicklas Bendtner made no mistakes with his first effort on goal to give Arsenal a well deserved lead.

Replays proved that Arshavin was off-side when he made the headed pass, which only made the Arsenal fans rejoice after the incident at the Dragao stadium.

Justice has been served.

Later on in the 25th minute, Arshavin made yet another wonderful run, where the Porto defenders were only able to admire his skill and technique, as he passed the ball to Bendtner to score his second goal of the game in less than half an hour.

It was game on at the Emirates.

In the second half, however, Porto were back on-form, and looked close to scoring the equalising goal, and Arsenal looked shaky, and the game was starting to go in the Portuguese champions direction.

Arsenal needed a goal out of nothing to guarantee themselves a place in the quarter-finals.

And Nasri provided just that.

In what might be considered as the best goal in the competition, by a mile. Samir Nasri scored one of the most beautiful goals any football fan could hope to see. Nasri was a master craftsman on the pitch.

Out of absolutely no where, Nasri took the ball from the right flank, and gave the Porto defenders absolutely no chance to even touch the French international, cutting left and right, dancing his way to the Porto goal, and scored with a superb finish from a dead angle, to leave the Porto defenders absolutely speechless.

Indeed, Nasri was untouchable, all they could do was to stare and admire the amazing technical ability displayed by one of the world's best player.

Little did Porto know, the night was still gonna take a turn from bad, to ridiculous.

Less than 50 seconds later, Porto had a corner that they planed to take quickly, if they are to have a chance of survival in this game.

Clichy cleared the ball, and it landed at the feet of Arshavin yet again. Arshavin showed great commitment, not letting the Porto players bully him despite his size, and played a great counter-attack on the Portuguese champions, then passed the ball to Eboue, who tricked Helton and scored Arsenal's fourth goal in a superb counter displayed by the Russian and the Ivorian, where the two players alone dismantled Porto's defence.

Arsenal were not through with scoring it seemed, as Bendtner and Eboue made a great run together, and as Eboue entered the 18 yard box, Fucile tackled recklessly, and gave Arsenal a penalty in the last minute of the game.

Bendtner made no mistakes, and converted the penalty in the back of the net, scoring his first hat-trick in his senior career, as Arsenal qualified to the quarter-finals.

Despite the absence of the Gunners' captain, Arsenal proved that they do not rely on a single individual in their time of need, a fact that was proved by the absence of more than just Fabregas, but by the absence of first team players such as van Persie and Gallas as well.

Arsenal are now in a good position in both the Champions League and the Premier League, and will fancy their chances in both competitions, as the chances of lifting a trophy by the end of this season look alive and well.