Bendtner looks in good Nick to be a Premier League superstar

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Published 22:52 14/03/10

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Nicklas Bendtner will be a Premier League superstar one day - and I look forward to him continuing to prove his critics wrong at Arsenal.

The Danish striker scored an injury-time winner at Hull on Saturday to add to his hat-trick in the Gunners’ Champions League thrashing of Porto.

And it is about time Arsenal fans ate some humble pie over their treatment of him.

Bendtner’s heroics go to show that, of the 60,000 fans at the Emirates, only the 30,000 or so who would have got into Highbury appear to know anything about football.

For Bendtner not only has a knack of scoring goals, but also of netting vital strikes.

How dare any Arsenal fans suggest Bendtner isn’t a top-quality forward in the making?

He has scored international goals for Denmark and has already shown huge potential in English football, so what more can Arsenal fans expect from a rookie who is barely 22 years old?

Arsenal supporters can continue to dig me out about a number of issues, but I have seen enough strikers and played in that position myself to know way more than some of the plonkers who criticise Bendtner.

To suggest he couldn’t hit a cow’s **** or a barn door is outrageous.

You don’t score a hat-trick in the Champions League latter stages unless you have ability and something special.

I do believe Bendtner will be one of the top strikers in the Premier League in two or three years’ time.

And I will be the first to say to Arsenal fans that I told them so.

He is big and has a fantastic physique, which is only going to fill out even more.

He is mobile and has a very good touch and an eye for goal - all the main attributes of a striker.

Because he misses chances doesn’t mean he isn’t a good striker.

Sometimes fans rightly say their opinions can be held up there with the pundits but on this occasion they can’t.

Anyone who says Bendtner has not got huge potential simply doesn’t know what they are talking about.

There were plenty of them singing: 'are you watching Collymore’ at Arsenal against Porto last week - and I didn’t mind the banter.

But on this occasion I have had the last laugh because plenty of them have been phoning in recently to slaughter Bendtner.

The same goes for Theo Walcott, who is another young boy at the beginning of his career.

But whether it is getting a hat-trick in the Champions League or a hat-trick in World Cup qualifying against Croatia in Zagreb for England, it stands you out as very special.

Proper football people will know that and I suggest among the Arsenal crowd there aren’t too many of of them.

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If Aston Villa are to enjoy a successful finish to the season I hope their squad players will now make a telling contribution.

As a Villa fan, I am delighted with this season. We were runners-up in the Carling Cup and have reached the semi-finals of the FA Cup.

My former club, and the team I supported as a boy, also has a chance of still finishing fourth in the top-flight.

But after a goalless draw at Stoke, Villa will have played five games in 15 days by March 27 and I hope their star players now rest up.

I noticed in Villa’s performance in the first half at Reading in the FA Cup last week, and against Stoke to a lesser extent, that there were some tired legs out there.

Boss Martin O’Neill has a good squad and the likes of Habib Beye, Steve Sidwell and Nigel Reo-Coker - when fully fit - must now help their team-mates out.

And I think now is the time for the players who aren’t in the first team to prove they can contribute.

The club’s first XI have done an exceptional job this season.

But I just hope the other players on the periphery can come in and prosper now.

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