Like every Gooner I've been annoyed at the young Dane from time to time this season, mainly when he's missed important chances. His questionable attitude doesn't bother me that much, most players are like that these days and Bendtner suffers from the same lack of PR skills that Ade suffers from. Good strikers need a bit of an ego and it's not as if Wright or Henry were shy and retiring types or even Adebayor (although it's fair to say that Wright and Henry's ego's were slightly more justified than the latter) for that matter.

But people do forget how young Bendtner is and how, like any 20-year-old striker, he needs more time. There are obvious signs of promise and to be fair his work-rate has shown signs of improvement on the pitch recently and Pantsdowngate doesn't really bother me. In terms of going out on the lash, he's got a way to go before he matches any of the Chelsea lot.

He is one of the few players in the squad to show anything that resembles aerial ability and if he's getting into the right positions then he's obviously causing defenders problems. Even though the quantity of goals hasn't been what it could be, the ones he has scored have come when things weren't going Arsenal's way - Kiev or Bolton for example. And speaking of Bolton, he's the nearest player we have to a hardman or potential hardman at least. In the past couple of decades we have been pretty lucky in terms of strikers, so let's have a look at where previous Arsenal strikers were when they were 20.

Alan Smith - When Smudger was 20, he had just signed for Leicester from non-league Alvechurch. Leicester were in the old Second Division and he scored 13 goals. Not bad but had he signed for Arsenal straight from Alvechurch there's no guarantee he would've gone on to achieve the legendary status he has today. Scored for fun until Wright arrived, then turned provider and scorer of important goals rather than scorer of lots of goals.

Paul Merson - Luckily (for him) if you played for Arsenal when he was 20 you would've seemed weird if you didn't end up in a West End club with your trousers down at 5am. Were he a young player now, he would've been sent to Coventry along with Jay Boothroyd long ago. As it stands, he had his ups and downs but is still generally remembered quite fondly in playing terms even if he isn't likely to be on ‘Mastermind’ in the foreseeable future.

Ian Wright- from what I can remember from reading his autobiography when I was 13, he was either plastering or getting rejected by the likes of Brighton and Southend after unsuccessful trials. Wouldn't surprise me if the rejections were to do with his loudmouth personality or volatile temper. Went on to break the top scoring record held for so long by Cliff Bastin and scored some pretty amazing goals for good measure too.

Dennis Bergkamp - OK, so he was doing well with Ajax at that age but then he's an exceptional player and to compare others' progress to his is plain naive.

Thierry Henry - Was getting his share of recognition at that age but as we saw in his first year at Arsenal (at the age of 22) he wasn't the finished article by any means. And let's not forget the amount of sitters he missed in the FA Cup Final when Liverpool achieved the poor man’s treble in 2001. But then he did go on to become Arsenal's all-time top scorer and the patience with him was more than worth it.

Eduardo - when he was 20, he was on loan at Inter Zapresic - a Croatian 2nd Division side which is hardly the same as playing up front (in Nick's case, on his own at times) for Arsenal. Did well but with all due respect to the fans of the Croatian 2nd Division, the expectations aren't quite the same.

Adebayor - only came to real prominence after he signed for Arsenal, was practically unknown before then, just like he will be once more when he leaves to spend the rest of his career warming Milan/Barca's benches like Petit, Flamini and Dribbly McNogoals before him.

Van Persie - Was falling out with coaching staff left, right and centre and there were many question marks over his temper and attitude, not to mention whether he would actually go on to have any sort of professional career given his surly reputation. Has carried Arsenal at times and if he signs a new contract then he'll be vital to any future success.

Looking at the not-so-great strikers, Jeffers' career peaked at Everton when he was around Bendtner's age and now he's lucky to get a game for Sheffield Wednesday. Christopher Wreh scored some vital goals in the 97/98 season and is now believed to be playing in Indonesia according to Wikipedia (Perseman Manokwari for any of you Liga Indonesia enthusiasts out there) and besides, despite the obvious exceptions, many other strikers have shown huge promise at 20 only to fade to nothingness. Bendtner's still not the finished article yet but he's doing steadily better than most of the above were at his age. As the old cliche goes, time will tell.