Football: Blues wonder kid is Gunner drive 'em round the BEND; Coca Cola CHAMPIONSHIP ARSENAL LOAN ACE NICK HAS BRUCE PURRING WITH DELIGHT.

Byline: By LEE WEST

Birmingham 2

Colchester 1

HAD he been there to see it, Arsene Wenger would have been purring far more than Steve Bruce was at the incredible talent he has on his hands in Nicklas Bendtner.

The Frenchman will have seen plenty of the young Dane smashing in goals for the reserves last season - 20 of them in fact - so has a fair idea of the potential in the kid's 6ft 3in frame.

The fact that he had no fewer than 15 clubs, including Celtic and Rangers, queuing up to take him on loan this season, was another fair indication that there is another special talent hatching under Wenger's expert tuition.

But the Professor of the Emirates Stadium would probably have learned more about the 18-year-old from Copenhagen in the 35 minutes he had on the pitch at St Andrews against Colchester, than any number of games he had played for the stiffs in the two previous years.

Especially in the split second it took him to bring Stephen Kelly's cross instantly under his spell and sweep a precision shot beyond the flailing fingertips of Aidan Davison for his first meaningful goal in senior football to partly ease the embarrassment of Cameron Jerome - whose own debut ended in a cloud of red-mist after only five minutes.

Bendtner's gangling movement brings to mind Kanu, his silken first touch would have Dennis Bergkamp nodding with approval and the finish, which ensured that promotion favourites Birmingham started the season with the victory that expectant fans were anticipating, was pure Thierry Henry at his best.

Not bad considering he had trained only once with his team-mates and not a bad trio to be imitating. Bendtner's dream of playing in the Premiership in the non-toodistant future looks like an absolute shoo-in - Bruce will just be hoping that he at least waits until after Christmas, when the teenager's initial loan spell runs out.

The soon to be great Dane is certainly happy to be upping his learning curve, after long discussions with Wenger this summer and said: "This is the next step in my development and that is the most important thing for me. I can learn more here than playing in the reserves all the time and now every point counts in the games. I talked with Arsene Wenger and he said a few things to me.

"I would prefer to keep those to myself, but we both know that it is better for me to play here than in the reserves. I don't know whether that will see me competing for an Arsenal place before the end of the season.

"I will have to see what happens, but, of course, I can imagine that in one or two seasons I might be playing in the Premiership. For the time being I am at Birmingham for six months and I want to help them get into the Premiership." Jerome might not have slept too well on Saturday night, but his obvious anguish brought about by the debut from hell will at least have been eased slightly by the fact that his moment of unprofessionalism did not cost his team the ultimate price.

Made to wait on the bench for 65 minutes, while DJ Campbell, the man who took his starting role, grabbed his first goal in 12 appearances for the club - the pounds 3m summer signing from Cardiff was desperate to make an impact.

The one he made with his hand in the face of Karl Duguid, which left referee Keith Stroud with little alternative but to show him a straight red, was not the one he will have spent all preseason imagining.

Bruce (left) said: "He is 19 and he has not got a malicious bone in his body. I have seen the incident again and I think it is very harsh. I know you should not raise your hands, but there was no elbow.''

Geraint Williams, the man expected to follow in the footsteps of Phil Parkinson, will have spent the weekend feeling only marginally better.

Richard Garcia's equaliser and Jerome's dismissal came at a time when his unfancied team were well on top.

"That was cruel on us really, but we let ourselves down with a lapse. We had the extra man and looked like we would go on and win the game," said Williams. "It was a harsh lesson, but one that we will have to learn quickly if we want to stay in this division."

CAPTION(S):

A TALE OF TWO DEBUTS..ONE GREAT IN AND OUT: Bendtner's winner flies past Davison after Jerome (right) was sent off' DANE-GER MAN: On-loan teenager Nicklas Bendtner proved an instant hit at St Andrews