Wenger faith in Bendtner pays off
Reuters - Tuesday 09 March 2010, 23:29
LONDON - Three days can be a long time in
football as Nicklas Bendtner proved on Tuesday.
On Saturday against Burnley the gangly Dane's finishing
prowess was distinctly Sunday morning pub league standard but on
Tuesday it was worthy of the Champions League as his first
Arsenal hat-trick helped power his side into the quarter-finals.
NEWS: Arsenal cruise into quarters
Bendtner, an industrial presence in a team full of artists,
divides opinion at The Emirates like no other.
Willing worker though he is, he can on occasions look a
little out of step with the silky movements of those around him.
He is an easy target for fans' when things are not going
well but manager Arsene Wenger has always stood by him since
spotting him playing for FC Copenhagen.
"It shows you how football can change very quickly," Wenger
said of Bendtner after his side's 5-0 thrashing of the
Portuguese that sealed a 6-2 aggregate win.
"It can go quickly up and quickly down. It shows that he had
not lost his confidence and he came back with a good focus and
belief, that's one of his strengths, his confidence levels
remain relatively stable.
"He has the size and presence that we need because we are
normally a very short team...he helps us offensively and
defensively."
While Bendtner grabbed the match ball with two routine
finishes and a stoppage time penalty, Wenger was quick to praise
the impact of Samir Nasri and Andrei Arshavin whose pace and
trickery tore Porto to pieces on the slick Emirates carpet.
Such was their impact that the absence of captain Cesc
Fabregas went almost unnoticed while Nasri's exquisite solo
dribble for Arsenal's third goal was sheer class.
"Nasri is developing very well," Wenger said. "What he
showed tonight he shows in training and we expected that to come
out in the games.
"He is a player with talent and he showed that tonight like
he did on Saturday and he has started to be efficient now.
Tonight he made the first goal and scored a great goal. Great
players assist and score goals."
Arsenal's thumping win finally allowed them to overturn a
first-leg deficit in Europe for the first time since they beat
Hajduk Split on away goals in the 1978-79 season.
"The statistics were against us," Wenger said of the nine
subsequent occasions that Arsenal had failed to recover from a
first leg defeat. "But historical statistics don't mean a lot if
you have a good team on the pitch."
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