Chaos

Let me start out by saying I share a lot of the reservations many Arsenal fans have around the potential signing of Noni Madueke from Chelsea. There are some concerns that I do not share too. That he would join from Chelsea is, to me, a total irrelevance. In fact, as Chelsea increasingly buy dizzying amounts of players it strikes me as quite a good place to shop. (At the rate they buy players it might even be unavoidable).

I also think some of the fan anxieties over shopping in West London come from a fear of being ‘bantered’ on social media but I just do not agree with the external consensus that Chelsea have had the better end of this marketplace relationship. Kai Havertz is a bona fide starter for Arsenal and he literally scored two goals against Chelsea in a 5-0 win for Arsenal that saw a forlorn and very past it Pierre Emerick Aubameyang start for the away side.

Chelsea haven’t won a competitive game against Arsenal for four years (Havertz and Jorginho started that win for Chelsea) and haven’t finished above Arsenal for three years. Petr Cech and David Luiz were not amazing signings but they were first choice players who came for low fees (Chelsea did not want to sell Cech to Arsenal but only did so out of respect to one of their greatest ever players).

Willian was a disaster but he left Chelsea on a free so they did not even benefit. Raheem Sterling was terrible but Chelsea picked up a significant part of his wages, earned no loan fee and now he is still contracted to them for another two years. Good luck getting him shifted, lads.

However, I certainly understand the reservations over Madueke because of concerns over his consistency and whether he raises Arsenal’s ceiling, never mind their floor. I think how I instinctively feel about it will depend on how the rest of the window shakes out. If Arsenal add, say, Eze to Madueke and Gyokeres, that puts a different sheen on things compared to if it’s Gyokeres and Madueke.

I still think the latter scenario improves Arsenal’s attack, by the way. Arsenal started a Champions League game with a front three of Sterling, Merino and Tierney last season. I think those additions raise Arsenal’s floor but I certainly understand that it probably doesn’t appear to raise the ceiling in the way we had hoped.

That all remains to be seen, of course and even if you do have reservations about a signing, or an entire transfer window upon its conclusion, you still have to just wait and see how things turn out. It seems like Arsenal feel there is unrealised potential in Madueke for them to try to juice and we will have to wait to judge whether their determination is proved correct, even if we do have strong suspicions.

I think Scott Willis does a very good job of parsing the potential signing in this piece. Scott makes the good point that, almost counterintuitively, if Madueke was arriving from Brentford, Bournemouth or West Ham, there might be greater excitement. Scott compares Madueke’s data with the likes of Semenyo, Mbeumo and Kudus and he stacks up quite well. (With the obvious caveat that Madueke plays in a better team).

Leaving aside my reservations about the player, I think there are two things that I am drawn to in Arsenal’s interest. Firstly, it really does look like firmer back up to Bukayo Saka is a priority for Arteta this summer (whether Arsenal should dedicate this amount of resource to procuring it is a valid question). The earlier interest in Leroy Sane seems to confirm this too. But Havertz and Saka both tore their hamstrings last season and Arsenal are most firmly linked to Gyokeres and Madueke.

Undoubtedly, injuries dismantled Arsenal’s domestic season in 2024-25 and with other targets like Mosquera and Noorgard (even Kepa) greater depth looks to be a priority as it should be. Here is a list of Arsenal’s subs for the biggest game of their campaign last season, the second leg of the Champions League semi-final in Paris.

Neto, Setford, Tierney, White, Zinchenko, Trossard, Jorginho, Sterling, Calafiori, Butler-Oyedeji, Henry-Francis, Nwaneri

Six of those players have already left the club and by August 31 that number will surely increase. I admit that I am also concerned about Ethan Nwaneri’s future with one year left on his deal and Chelsea sniffing around.

I am dubious about the suggestion that Arsenal immediately see him in Odegaard’s position, I don’t think he has the game IQ to play there yet and in the first leg of the Champions League semi-final against PSG, he came on as a sub and played on the right wing while Saka moved into Odegaard’s position. However, leaving that aside, last season Arsenal’s attacking options at the business end of the season were Trossard, Martinelli, Merino, Sterling, Saka and Nwaneri.

I think adding Gyokeres, and Madueke while subtracting Sterling (and replacing Merino with a fit Havertz) makes the squad stronger- but I understand and endorse the feeling of having expected more a couple of months ago. A squad where Kepa, Norgaard, Mosquera, Gyokeres and Madueke are added makes the squad deeper than last season in my view, even if that set of names doesn’t contain a total game changer.

The other thing I am interested in with Madueke is the sense of chaos he brings, for want of a better word. This piece from Ahmed Walid in The Athletic (£) observes a lot of the same attributes that Scott does, though Ahmed’s projects forwards a little more. What Madueke does is shoot a lot and dribble a lot.

I think in the move from Gabriel Jesus to Kai Havertz as the main striker, Arsenal have lost some of that chaos and unpredictability in attack. I think this has taken its toll on Arsenal’s left side, where Jesus liked to drift the most. Martinelli’s failure to really kick on is at least partially correlated to the loss of his compatriot as a regular sparring partner.

Trossard is cut from a different cloth and doesn’t really solve that issue. Bringing another prolific dribbler into the forward line, together with a forward in Gyokeres who has more direct qualities is a line of thinking that I can follow. I sorely doubt Arsenal would pay in the region of £50m for someone who is simply going to play as second fiddle to Bukayo Saka.

There is little precedent for what Madueke might look like on the left wing, that seems to be a projection and a gamble on the club’s part (assuming my hypothesis is correct) and one I have to be open minded about until I see it in action. In a world where Eze joins as well, I imagine one of Martinelli or Trossard would leave so Madueke might end up as first reserve on both flanks.

Having a left-footer on the left would represent a departure but that could add some needed variety. It’s certainly interesting and a little curious, which will lead to plenty of speculation. But two things that I can certainly observe are that Arsenal want greater depth below Saka so that injuries cannot derail their season in the same way again and that Arteta wants greater risk taking in the final third.

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