A week ago Mikel Arteta said his stand-in for Bukayo Saka still needed to “make that click”. In Prague on Wednesday night, it looked like it had.
Noni Madueke opened the scoring after nine minutes of the 2-1 win over Slavia Prague, holding off his marker and slipping the ball between the goalkeeper’s legs after a clever reverse pass from Viktor Gyökeres. He then spent the rest of the first half running at the Slavia defence, and he was only taken off in the third minute of stoppage time.
One goal in a Champions League group game does not make a season. But it is the latest step in a run that has changed how we see the winger, and with Saka still out, the timing could not be better for Arsenal.
What did Arteta ask of Madueke?
Arteta was honest before the trip to Anfield. Asked whether Madueke was finally realising his potential, he said: “He’s getting closer but he needs to do it.” He added that the winger “needs to make that click”, which is the thing that separates the top players from the rest.
There was a fairer side to it too. Arteta admitted: “Sometimes we ask him to play when he’s not playing regularly, and that’s a bit unfair as well.” And then the line that matters most now: “Now he’s got a great opportunity ahead of him.” We went through that press conference in full in our piece on the ankle doubt before Anfield.
That was a manager setting a target in public. Two games later, Madueke has given him an answer.
From Anfield to Prague: the best run of his Arsenal career
Look at the last few weeks together and a pattern appears. He came on at half-time against Nottingham Forest on 18 October and won the game ten minutes from time. He set up Jurriën Timber for the opener in the 3-0 win over Lille, played all 90 minutes of the 2-0 win over Everton and moved across to cover for Saka in Munich.
At Anfield he shook off an ankle problem to start, and he was part of the move for the only goal: Bruno Guimarães worked the ball out to him on the right, Declan Rice overlapped, and Kai Havertz turned in the cross. That run of form earned him a place on the October shortlist alongside Rice, Martin Ødegaard and Ezri Konsa, as we covered in the Player of the Month nominees.
We were careful not to oversell it a week ago. The winner at the City Ground was a heavily deflected shot, and the honest view was that Gooners wanted goals and more than one good week in a row. Prague was a cleaner piece of evidence. The finish was calm, and so was everything around it.
What has actually changed?
For us it is the decision-making. Madueke has always had the raw tools, the pace, the dribbling and the willingness to take a full-back on. What he hasn’t always had is the end product to go with them, the moment where he picks the right pass or keeps his shot low instead of going for the spectacular.
On Wednesday he looked like a player who knows he is going to start the next game. He took the simple option when it was on, ran hard off the ball and could easily have added an assist or two. Confidence is a big part of that, and it shows.
Gyökeres and Madueke, a link worth keeping
The goal itself came from the partnership that decided the night. Gyökeres played a clever reverse pass in behind, and Madueke was already on the move. Arteta said of his striker afterwards that he “was really connected to the team”, and the opener was the best example of it.
That matters because the two of them are likely to share the pitch a lot more this month. If the No.9 keeps finding runners and the winger keeps making them, Arsenal have a new route to goal while their best attacker is in the treatment room.
Why the right wing is his for now
Saka has missed four games in a row with the quad injury he picked up against Bayern Munich, and there have been fears he could be out for as long as eight weeks, depending on another scan. Max Dowman, the other natural option on that side, is suspended for Saturday and for the trip to Newcastle United on 21 November.
So Madueke goes into the home game with Hull City on Saturday as the clear first choice, and the full picture of who is available is in our Arsenal injury news before Hull. We wouldn’t take that game lightly either. We think Hull will be a tougher test than plenty of Gooners expect, which makes it exactly the kind of game a winger in form needs to win.
With Arsenal top of the Premier League and on 10 points from four Champions League games, nobody is asking Madueke to be Saka. They are asking him to keep the right side dangerous until the England man is back. On this evidence, he can.
Is Noni Madueke finally the real deal at Arsenal?
Not yet, and he would probably say the same. The second half in Prague, when the whole side dropped off and Slavia had their best spell, is a reminder that one good half is not the finished article.
But this is the most consistent we have seen him since he arrived from Chelsea in the summer of 2025. He is making better choices, he is playing with confidence and he is scoring when it matters. Arteta asked him to make it click. On Wednesday, it did, and the next few weeks without Saka are his chance to prove it wasn’t a one-off.
