Could Bendtner-Eboue win the league?

Arsenal have, over the years, had some fantastic partnerships: Smith and Marwood, Adams and Bould, Bergkamp and Ljungberg, Pires and Henry, even Campbell and Toure.

Now, in the spring of 2009 / 2010, another might - just might - be emerging. As 2002 is remembered for Bergkamp - Ljungberg, could 2010 be remembered for Bendtner - Eboue?

At first, of course, it seems unlikely. Eboue is a right-back who can’t defend. Bendtner, meanwhile, has the touch of a blacksmith.

In August, neither was near the first team. If Arsene Wenger has an archetypal player, it isn’t Eboue, and it certainly isn’t Bendtner, the northern European number nine.

Yet their difference is their strength: both, in business terms, have Unique Selling Points. That, in Arsenal’s identikit squad, makes them valuable. They give variety to Arsenal’s one-dimensional attack.

A team of Arshavins, and Nasris, and Rosickys, is, on its day, fantastic. Ten-yard passes slip through ten-inch gaps; the team moves like five-thousand swifts in formation.

Problem is, that day doesn’t often happen. When teams defend deep, and narrow, and well, Arsenal suffocate. They need room, and without it, they’re dead. Chelsea and Manchester United have worked that out. Perhaps Stoke will, as well.

That’s why Arsenal need players that aren’t like Arshavin, Nasri, and Rosicky. They need players who want to win games, not Goal of the Month.

Eboue, unlike Arsenal’s midfielders, doesn’t want the ball every five seconds. He’s happy enough - and quick enough - to ignore the ball, run past opponents, and stretch them. Defenders are happy when everything’s in front of them. When they’re made to turn, they panic.

Bendtner, unlike Arsenal’s other attackers, doesn’t want the ball forty yards from goal. His touch isn’t good enough. He’d be happy to touch the ball three times a game, if it meant three goals.

Also - for the first time since John Hartson - he’s an Arsenal striker who attacks the ball at height. Wenger, since Francis Jeffers, has ditched the Fox in the Box tag. But that's what Bendtner is.

So Bendtner and Eboue are different. But that, alone, doesn’t make them a partnership. What makes them exciting - and why Wenger has dropped Bacary Sagna - is this: their strengths compliment each other. Bendtner and Eboue, Arsenal’s two odd-shaped pieces, fit together nicely.

Eboue likes to hit the byline, and cross. He likes to skim balls across the six-yard box, or smack balls to the far post. And that’s where Bedntner likes to play. He’s far happier at the back post, waiting for an Eboue cross, than on a defender’s shoulder, waiting for a Nasri one-two.

Arshavin, Nasri, and Rosicky score goals one way. Bendtner and Eboue score them another. Between them, they could score winners in ten of the next 11 games. And that - with Chelsea on the front pages, and Manchester United on the back foot - might be enough.