Bendtner Arsenal’s unlikely hero

Arsenal 2 Hull 0

Arsene Wenger had a pop at the small screen doubters before this match and it will be interesting to hear what they make of this. Not the result but the scorer of the opening goal. Yes folks, even Nicklas Bendtner has started to find the net.

The win maintained the Gunners’ four-point advantage at the top of the Premier League table and inched them closer to a title they have not won since 2004. The nay-sayers claim a lack of strength in depth will cost them come May.

But, I repeat, even Nicklas Bendtner has started to find the net.

This was the second time in a few days that Arsenal had come up against a promoted side, with the Gunners having won 3-0 at Cardiff City onSaturday.

But Cardiff and Hull share more than a desire not to be dumped back into the Championship: they both possess owners hell bent on winding up the loyal fanbase through decisions as whimsical as they are controversial.

Cardiff’s traditional blue shirts have long been ditched for red ones, supposedly luckier in the Malaysian eyes of Vincent Tan, but Assem Allam, Hull’s Egyptian owner, certainly trumped that by declaring that anyone opposed to his plan to rename the club Hull Tigers could “die as soon as they want”.

Life is so serene at the Emirates these days that a French midfielder vandalising his shirt is the closest Arsenal have come to civil unrest in recent weeks.

But here’s the thing. Arsenal have changed as much as any club, perhaps more than most. They changed their name — dropping Woolwich exactly a century ago — and have twice shifted their entire stadium.

The changes uppermost in the home supporters’ minds, however, concerned the five made to the starting line-up, the most glaring of which was the restoration of Bendtner to give Olivier Giroud a rest. It was a first Premier League start in an Arsenal shirt since March 2011 for the Dane, who went on to have a loan spell at Sunderland, then managed by Hull’s Steve Bruce.

Ah, Bendtner, now minus the beard but still with the micro-ponytail...it was inevitable we’d get back to him. Utterly terrible in the Capital One Cup against Chelsea, here he was at a time when Arsenal’s title credentials were under the microscope. It was, as they say, an ‘interesting’ choice.

And it took just 90 seconds to pay off as Aaron Ramsey’s ball set upCarl Jenkinson for a cracking cross from the right that the Dane powered home for his first Gunners goal in the Premier League in three years.

Hull could hardly get out of their own box let alone half for a while after that and Bendtner should have had another when Hull keeper Allan McGregor spilled Mesut Ozil’s shot at his feet. This time he stumbled clumsily and put it wide off his shins.

McGregor did well to tip Ramsey’s drive round a post but Arsenal went in at the break just that one goal to the good after Ozil headed Bendtner’s chip wide.

It took the German just two second-half minutes to make amends, however, as he accepted Ramsey’s reverse pass and swept the ball low past McGregor for his fourth Arsenal goal and first in 11 games.

Bendtner almost had another, after McGregor had denied Ramsey again, but Robbie Brady cleared his header from a corner off the line. Wojciech Szczesny needed treatment when Yannick Sagbo connected with his head.

With the game well and truly won Arsenal sent on Theo Walcott and Jack Wilshere for the final 17 minutes while Hull manager Bruce entertained himself by arguing with the Gunners fans behind him, who responded with a song about his tight-fitting tracksuit trousers.

While all this was going on, Liverpool’s Luis Suarez — the man Arsenal valued at precisely £40,000,000.01 in the summer — was scoring four goals against Norwich to remind everyone that he’s the best striker not playing in the Champions League this season.

It’ll take far more than that to get the Uruguayan to the Emirates in January, and he prefers Real Madrid anyway even if Liverpool can be persuaded. But who needs Suarez when you’ve got Bendtner, eh?

ARSENAL (4-2-3-1): Szczesny 7; Jenkinson 7, Mertesacker 7, Koscielny 7, Monreal 7; Flamini 7, Ramsey 7 (Arteta 77); Rosicky 7 (Wilshere 73), Ozil 7, Cazorla 7; Bendtner 7 (Walcott 73).

HULL CITY (4-4-2): McGregor 8; Elmohamady 7, Bruce 7, Chester 7, Figueroa 7; Livermore 6, Huddlestone 6, Meyler 6, Brady 6 (Rosenior 58, 5); Sagbo 6 (Gedo 73), Graham 4 (Boyd 58, 5).

Referee: Andre Marriner.