Arsenal’s squad construction has given them a lot of depth and diversity in terms of profiles. Timber and White for right-back, Calafiori and Hincapie for left-back. Ezri Konsa has, incredibly, offered both protection and threat to the impregnable Saliba and Gabriel partnership. Bruno and Lewis Skelly, Rice and Zubimendi and Odegaard and Merino for midfield. Eze and Tzolis for the left-wing. Havertz and Gyokeres for centre-forward. Of course, some of these pairings are more symbiotic than others. Mosquera is probably going to fall behind Konsa as a back up to either one of Saliba or Gabriel. In reality, Zubimendi is only going to play ahead of Rice if Rice is injured or Arsenal have a nice easy game against League Two opposition, for example… On the face of it, Noni Madueke should really be in that third layer of the squad with Mosquera, Kepa and where Zubimendi probably now resides. The role of back-up to Bukayo Saka ought to have been one with limited opportunity. In a sense, I was always a little surprised that Madueke signed up for it when he came to the club from Chelsea last summer. I was slightly surprised that Arsenal spent so much money on a player who was always incredibly unlikely to dislodge Saka no matter how much he improved. And how much scope was there going to be for Madueke to get the sort of rhythm and consistency of selection to hone his talents? Now I strongly suspect that Arsenal would have had anxieties over Saka’s ability to stay fit after tearing his hamstring in December 2024 and missing a few months of football. It was the first significant injury Saka had incurred and after quickly deciding that loanee winger Raheem Sterling was not going to be an adequate replacement, they amended for his absence with a blend of 17-year-old Ethan Nwaneri and surplus left-back Kieran Tierney. It isn’t difficult to see how Arsenal viewed the right-wing spot as a single point of failure but encouraging Madueke to see it as an attractive position must have challenged even Mikel Arteta’s powers of persuasion. Yet just over a year on from signing for Arsenal, Madueke has a league title winners medal (‘while others are tweeting and posting’) with 25 starts to his name last season, 16 of which were in the Premier League. In reality, being Bukayo Saka’s third leg has, to this point, proved to be a savvy career move for Madueke because he is getting plenty of time on the pitch in Saka’s increasing absences. This extends to the England National Team too, where Madueke plays the same role. But it was a role that still earned him four starts for his country in a World Cup, including a start in the quarter-final against Norway. A Premier League title winners medal, a Champions League Final appearance and four World Cup starts was not a bad return for Madueke in terms of playing time. I think we knew when Arsenal bought him that Noni was a talented but phlegmatic player, relentless in taking on his full-back but the quality of his end-product could vary markedly. In his new signing profile of Madueke on Arseblog, Phil Costa wrote, ‘there’s a feeling that Arsenal lack penetration from their wingers (Bukayo Saka aside); chaos factor, some unpredictability, and Madueke brings this in spades. His first thought when receiving the ball is centred around provoking defenders and driving towards goal, which means you can isolate him without too much focus on the overall setup – you just wind him up and let him go. ‘There are two specific metrics to love when assessing the 23-year-old; per FBRef data, he currently sits in the 95th percentile for progressive carries (6.82 per 90) and the 98th percentile for carries into the box (4.12 per 90). Those are big numbers.’ There was never any doubt about Madueke’s ability to get the ball into threatening areas, the question has always been what he does when he gets there. Last season, some clips of him harumphing the ball out of the stadium on his right foot went semi-viral. I also think some of his performances were impacted by a lack of balance in the front three. With technicians like Havertz and Odegaard unavailable, he was often playing alongside fellow blunderbusses like Gyokeres and Martinelli. I admit that my tolerance for inefficiency is high when it comes to attackers. I think attacking is a volume game. The vast majority of attacks come to nothing, the vast majority of shots do not go in or even work a goalkeeper. Individual attacks are the weather but, overall, attacking is the climate. The more you do it and sustain it, the more likely you are to score. So my ‘we can fix him’ gene for slightly wayward wingers is high. I didn’t even mind Gervinho (a frustrating player, no doubt, but the Bradford miss has become the defining image of his Arsenal career which I don’t believe was fully representative of his performances). The video of Madueke’s right foot ballooning the ball into the upper tier against Kairat last season has been refined. Both his goals this season have been on his right foot, particularly notably against Nottingham Forest where he cut in on his right and unleashed a low and controlled shot. It might have taken a helpful deflection but that’s because he kept the attempt low. Last season, his right footed efforts were more in danger of colliding with low flying aircraft on their way into orbit. Noni’s goal against Slavia Praha demonstrated his pace in behind. It was the sort of goal and chance Gabriel Martinelli was hoovering up in Europe last season. European games tend to offer more space in behind and with Martinelli gone, Madueke is one of the few Arsenal attackers explosive enough to exploit it. Indeed, in my view, he ought to have won Arsenal a match winning penalty in Budapest against Paris Saint Germain in May. There are signs of greater maturity and efficiency in his game. According to WhoScored.com his pass success rate in the Premier League last season was 76.2%. This season so far it is 86.3%. I think he has learned that he does not have to go for the full-back at 100mph every single time he gets the ball and has varied his game. In the Champions League game against Lille, he sent 15 crosses into the penalty area, having sent six into the area in the game before against Leeds. 15 crosses sounds like a lot but it was very clearly under instruction from Mikel Arteta. After that Lille game, the manager said of Madueke, ‘I said when you talk about players being ‘clinical’, sometimes that means scoring five in every 100. It’s about generating volume, more actions and getting him into the good positions, because he will decide matches. He had a really big contribution a few days ago, today he had a contribution in the last final pass as well.’ Being omitted from the England squad in September, according to Arteta, provided additional motivation for Noni, ‘After the break, he is showing something else, another level of anger, another level of conviction as well as in his actions and he is becoming decisive in matches, which is what we expect from a player like him.’ He has now been omitted from the England squad again for the November international round. It is a decision I don’t really understand from Thomas Tuchel but I am happy if it continues to provide Madueke with an additional reason to fine tune his game and because it hopefully protects a player who has become very important. I admit I am not entirely sure how good Madueke is going to be in, say, three years’ time. He is 24 and it’s at that age that attackers typically start to increase their decisive actions. He has Max Dowman in the rearview mirror too. I think Madueke has a really high ceiling and there are small, but encouraging, signs of improvement. The post Are you ok, Noni? appeared first on Arseblog ... an Arsenal blog.