Dane delivers: Can Arsene keep his wallet in his pocket and rely on Bendtner?

The reaction to Nicklas Bendtner starting for Arsenal for this first time in the Premier League in almost three years against Hull City Tigers drew to reactions from the Gunner’s support, surprise and anger.

The perceived arrogance and lack of ability from the Denmark forward, in addition to his poor performances for the club when does get a chance and while out on loan means that he has been much maligned by fans and press alike.

This screenshot was taken from the Squawka Football App – Download it here

However against Hull City Tigers Arsene Wenger took the opportunity to rest a number of players, including the prolific Olivier Giroud, and this gave Bendtner his chance, and you know what, he was not bad.

His Squawka Performance Score was 51, earned in just 72 minutes before he was replaced by Theo Walcott. Only Aaron Ramsey and Mezut Ozil scored higher than him in the Arsenal side on the night. It was also a huge improvement on the Performance Score of eight which he has earned in the three fleeting substitute appearances in the league in 2013/14.

Bendtner opened the scoring after just two minutes with an impressive header. The goal was one of three shots giving him a 33% shots to goal ratio, while one of his other efforts resulted in a narrow miss with the effort going just wide.

He was also respectable in the air, winning three of five, or 60% of his attempted headers. He used his ability in the air well, which helped Arsenal’s build up play.

Bendtner’s pass completion was also high, especially for a centre forward. He completed 79% of passes in Wednesday’s encounter with one of those being a key pass. His Heat Map from the game also implies a high work rate as he did not just stay in one part of the pitch as he looked to get more involved in the play and tried to influence the game.

It is hard to compare Bendtner’s performance against Hull to any other game as he has only played a maximum of 13 minutes in any one match. In those 13 minutes, which came against Manchester United, resulted in no shots and a 50% pass completion.

The other 13 minute stint came in the 4-1 home win over Norwich City in which he had one shot, on target, and attempted nine passes, all finding a team mate.

So it is hard to ascertain whether he is improving based on those two games, but we can see from the Hull match that he has the ability to play for Arsenal at this level, even if it is only against certain types of opposition.

Arsenal have constantly been linked with another striker since the summer from players that would go straight into the starting eleven to players who would play second fiddle to the first team forwards like Giroud.

However if Bendtner is working as hard in training as Wenger implies, and he can play in the same manner he did against the Tigers, there is no reason why Arsenal can’t keep their money in their pocket and utilize the Dane as their backup centre forward.