It would be really easy today for me to speak about such an outstanding player as Thomas Vermaelen, after the brace he netted against Wigan recently. But I’d like to talk about someone else, a guy I always loved and hated at the same time, Nicklas Bendtner. His importance in the team is highly underestimated by the fans; however, by writing this, it is not my intention to over-rate him.

In this season of high economic uncertainties and takeover talks, the only money our manager forked out was very well spent on Thomas Vermaelen. I don’t think Wenger really had any more money to spend (apart from the Tourè-Adebayor money, which I believe went straight into the Highbury Square project). Stubborn as he his, sometimes rightly, the Frenchman stuck with the team he had because he had ‘belief’ in some of the younger players such as Song, Diaby, Denilson and Bendtner, and wanted them to blossom during this season.

In a previous article, I was very bitter and critical with Denilson and Diaby in particular, and even if maybe I was a bit harsh with them, I think that they are really stand-ins. They are the ones who stayed because of the lack of money.

Bendtner has had his contract renewed less than a month ago, and I don’t think he’s staying because he’s a stand-in. I reckon Arsene loves him, in a footballing way of course, and really believes in him and in his potential.

There are still rumours about who we are going to buy, and again the name of Chamakh came out, with whom the Arsenal have long been linked. But we didn’t buy this guy, because Arsene didn’t want to spend £5 million quid - money I think he really had in his pocket.

Young Nicklas has shown just a tiny part of his talent, up until now. He was forced to the bench or used more in the Carling Cup for much of the two past seasons, and that was because of that big joke Adebayor being at Arsenal. And when the Togolese and the Dane played together, they really seemed to hate each other. But now, thanks to God, Adebayor is gone, and Bendtner for the first time has some responsibilities on his shoulders.

During this first part of the campaign, apart from the Liege match, he was mainly used on the flank, as a winger, something that sometimes seems to suit him well, some other times not, of course not. In this awkward 4-3-3 formation the manager is fielding now (formation that the mighty Arsene will ditch the moment he’ll understand that it makes you defensively weak against stronger teams), Bendtner would be the perfect huge spearhead that every team would love to have, playing between Arshavin on the left, and Van Persie on the right (solving the problem about Sagna or Ebouè or Bendtner himself crossing). Nicklas now needs playing minutes to build up confidence, even though everybody at Arsenal has been expecting his confidence to build up now for years. He’s not playing in the right position, but maybe that is due to some players missing, like Nasri, Walcott and Rosicky (now back on duty); the Dane is not quick or smart enough with dribbling to cope on the wing, but he has got the right quality to cope in the box. He’s tall, really tall, and he knows how to use his head, so good quality balls in the box by Arshavin, Van Persie or Fabregas could amplify his scoring opportunities.

In Liege, he was the one who scored at nearly half time to lead us to that incredible comeback.

Without looking at the scoring ratio, that really doesn’t mean anything in rating strikers, Robin van Persie has been struggling a lot in his new central position, not just in scoring, but simply in playing the ball. He’s tackled, stamped, he cannot breathe at times on the pitch. Bendtner, with his imposing body, could swap his role with Van Persie, and start to become the centre of our firepower. And this would be important, a striker who scores more. We do not have at the moment really prolific strikers. Apart from Arshavin, van Persie is struggling, Eduardo is coming back (quite well but not enough), Bendtner is building up confidence (!)... we are relying on defenders like Vermaelen (4), Gallas, Ebouè (2!) and the odd couple Diaby-Denilson to score... So Arsene, let Nicklas play in the box, so that he can understand the importance of being Bendtner.