Wenger warns Bendtner: 'You haven't made it yet'

Pink boots and squiring a Danish baroness are unlikely to make Nicklas Bendtner connect readily with the good people of Hull.

But as Arsenal headed for their latest needle match with the Tigers this evening, Gunners manager Arsene Wenger warned his man-of-the-moment: “You haven’t cracked it yet.”

Bendtner has been through a bitter-sweet week in which he missed a pile of sitters against Burnley, bagged his first-ever hat-trick in the Champions League against Porto - and celebrated on the town with his girlfriend Lady Caroline Luel-Brockdorff, who is worth an estimated £400 million.

Lady Caroline, 13 years older than Bendtner, is a member of the Danish royal family who was once married to James Bond author Ian Fleming’s grand nephew Rory.

But in the living daylights of the KC Stadium, where Arsenal could go top of the Premier League, Bendtner can expect few heirs and graces against a club scrapping for survival after just one win in 15 Premier League games.

Mercifully he has left his pink-booted days behind, and Wenger said: “Of course he has changed. He is still confident, but in a more mature way.

“He can sometimes be completely wrong when he walks in and says, ‘I am the best’ - but if you tell him ‘You are not the best because you haven’t done that, that and that’ he listens to you and tries to take advice on board. So his is not a blind confidence in himself - that is why I like him and always believed in him.

“It can be a little difficult managing him because he has the confidence before he has proved himself, but to play as a central striker you need to be a special character and he has qualities which are very important in his position.

“I have to give him more leeway, but I have also learned you can’t have a robot playing up front. Every big player I have met in my life was different.

“Three or four weeks ago, when he came back into the side, he looked out of shape. His running looked heavy, he had heavy feet. Now it is different because he has played several games and he knows that, if he does well, he has a good chance of staying in the team.”

Bendtner’s see-sawing form is a sub-plot to a fixture with a recent history of antagonism dating back to Cesc Fabregas allegedly spitting on

Tigers assistant manager Brian Horton’s shoe in the tunnel after an FA Cup quarter-final 12 months ago.

Arsenal skipper Fabregas, who misses today’s rumble on the Humber with a hamstring strain, was also accused of abusing Hull players and staff when he appeared on the pitch - in a hoodie and black leather jacket - on the final whistle.

Hull manager Phil Brown was incensed, and claimed Wenger failed to observe the customary handshakes afterwards, although the FA cleared Fabregas of misconduct and instead charged Brown for protesting that his team had been “cheated” by referee Mike Riley.

Any thaw in relations hit another sharp frost in December, when both teams were involved in a mass confrontation during the Gunners’ 3-0 win at the Emirates.

Hull were outraged when Arsenal midfielder Samir Nasri appeared to trample deliberately on Richard Garcia’s ankle, and Gunners goalkeeper Manuel Almunia rushed 100 yards to join in the dispute.

Strangely, the FA fined Hull £40,000 last month for failing to control their players, while Arsenal’s penalty was only £20,000.

But Wenger, who has promised he WILL shake Brown’s hand this evening, insisted: “I have nothing against Phil Brown. Of course I will shake his hand. We just seem to have had tight games against Hull and the tension has been higher.

“What can stop us winning the title is that we don’t perform at our best, and Hull are a team who can play very well against anybody in the Premier League.

“We have done exactly the opposite of last year - we’ve lost against Chelsea and Manchester United because we didn’t turn up, but we have been quite consistent agains the so-called lesser teams.

“Of our six defeats, four have been against Chelsea and United. That’s why it is important that we continue to achieve that consistency until the end of the season.”