Noni Madueke is not quite Mikel Arteta’s super-sub. Gabriel Martinelli has made the most appearances from the bench this season (27), while Max Dowman and Gabriel Jesus have been used almost exclusively as substitutes. But if Arsenal need a goal in the latter stages of Saturday’s Champions League final against PSG, there’s a very good chance Arteta will send for Madueke.
It has been a strange season for Madueke, whose involvement has tended to go hand in hand with Bukayo Saka’s injury status. They have occasionally played together, with Madueke on the left or Saka trialled through the centre. But typically it has been one or the other. Madueke averages 53 minutes per appearance in a role which has been more understudy than competitor, despite Saka’s occasional struggles for form.
It is a dynamic that is likely to continue beyond the Champions League final into the summer, when Saka is expected to be Thomas Tuchel’s first-choice right winger at the World Cup. This despite Madueke’s starring role in England’s best game under Tuchel, the 5-0 win over Serbia in September.
“It’s been different for sure,” Madueke says. “But B is a top player. We kind of fight on all fronts – same for England, same for Arsenal. But it’s been good. We know that we’re pulling in the same direction.”
Tuchel often talks about having a variety of “profiles” to choose from and in Madueke, both he and Arteta have an alternative to Saka – someone fast and direct who will drive towards the byline over and over again.
“It’s amazing to have two high-level players, but completely different,” Madueke says. “There’s definitely parts of his game I try and implement into mine, he probably says the same. We’re so close off the pitch.”
One natural consequence of modern football’s characteristics – the hard running and intense pressing, the five substitutions and the increasingly elongated stoppage time – is that the game has split in to two phases: the first hour when the two first XIs battle, which has become increasingly tactical and stilted; and the last half an hour or so, when the “finishers” enter the field and half the outfield players change. This game tends to be more spontaneous, and it is a situation for someone like Madueke to thrive.
It is a role, dovetailing with Saka, that he may have to get comfortable with. “I know I want to be here, I know he wants to be here, so it looks like that’s going to be our gig for the foreseeable.”
Madueke played a central role in Arsenal’s Premier League celebrations last week, taking responsibility for being MC and “rapping the whole night”, according to an Arsenal fan who paid a small fortune to get inside the exclusive Tape nightclub in Mayfair where the players partied.
Even Arteta let his hair down, showing his “fun side”, Madueke smiles. “Not that I haven’t seen it before. He can be really fun. Yes, he’s very intense, but he’s a good guy, a great guy.”
Has Arteta’s coaching surprised Madueke? “No, from the first conversation I had with him I knew what type of manager he was. Someone very humble, very hard working, very intense in a positive way. So I wasn’t surprised by him.
“He just helped me to be diligent, he’s helped me to really care about little details that count a lot towards winning games and fighting for major trophies.”
Madueke has played his part in Arsenal’s Champions League success this season, scoring his first Gunners goal in the 3-1 win over Bayern Munich which effectively booked their place in the knockout rounds.
There is only one game left and the task now is to find the right balance ahead of the meeting with PSG in Budapest, to sense the occasion without being overawed. More history can be made. After winning the Premier League, is the pressure off?
“No, it’s separate,” says Madueke. “The pressure of the Champions League is there, but pressure is with us all the time. This is Arsenal Football Club, one of the biggest teams in England.
“It’s definitely better that we won the Premier League, for sure, before we go into the Champions League final. I just don’t know if we will be thinking about that. We will be thinking about getting another one. I think the Premier League will be irrelevant on the night. It will be full focus on the Champions League, just giving our all and trying to make sure we bring that to the final.”
