The biggest areas of improvement for Noni Madueke as he closes in on Arsenal move | OneFootball

Noni Madueke’s move to Arsenal from Chelsea is nearing completion.

The 23-year-old left Chelsea’s Club World Cup campaign early to head back to London in order to undergo a medical with the Gunners, who are set to pay around £52m for the England international.

The talent is clearly there with Madueke, but he is far from the finished article, so where exactly does he need to improve?

We’ve taken a look at the most glaring areas where Madueke still has some work to do…

Passing and end product

Madueke’s output for Chelsea has been decent but he still has work to do, bearing in mind the money Arsenal are spending on him.

Since the turn of the year, the 23-year-old has scored five times, and assisted once. Throughout the entirety of the 2024/25 season, Madueke scored 11 goals and gathered seven assists in all competitions.

His goal tally compared with other wingers is certainly respectable, while assists obviously depend on the person the chance falls to finishing it too. But Madueke’s chance creation and passing stats show there is work to be done in that area.

Compared with those in the same position as Madueke in the top five European leagues last season (England, Spain, Germany, Italy and France), he ranked in just the 40th percentile for shot creating actions, in the 31st percentile for progressive passes and 58th percentile for pass completion.

Madueke attempted 814 passes in 2024/25, but only completed 635 of them, a 78 per cent success rate, whilst only one of those passes was a through ball. Over half of his overall passes were viewed as ‘short’, which suggests he lacks a killer, incisive defence splitting pass.

Simply put, Madueke is not a gifted forward passer of the ball. He is not someone who thrives at cutting in and playing through balls to his fellow forward which, with Viktor Gyokeres seemingly on the way, would be a handy attribute to have.

His strengths instead lie in his superb dribbling ability and burst of pace to get by players, but becoming a more accomplished and progressive passer is something he must develop.

Complacency

Chelsea boss Enzo Maresca has chosen to publicly question Madueke’s consistency and application over the past year.

“The reason why he was not playing is because I do not like the way he trained,” Maresca said back in December, speaking about why he left him out in a game against Aston Villa.

The Italian also suggested Madueke can become complacent after scoring or setting up a goal. “In the moment that he starts to score or assist and is happy, he starts to drop a little bit,” he said.

Those were comments he repeated after a win against Wolves in January, in which Madueke scored. “He can improve in the last third, but probably after he scored the goal he stopped playing. This has to be one thing we need to improve immediately. Never happy if you score one or two – always you have to go for more.”

The Chelsea boss regularly spoke of his admiration for Madueke but was left frustrated by his inability to stay consistent across 90 minutes.

Defensive concentration

Madueke is obviously being signed by Arsenal for his attacking abilities but he must also work on the defensive side of his game if he is to be a big success at Arsenal.

The work rate of Arsenal’s two starting wingers, Bukayo Saka and Gabriel Martinelli, has been regularly highlighted by their team-mates as a source of the team’s superb defensive record in recent times.

It is something Madueke has to buy into if this Arsenal team is to continue to challenge for trophies.

He has been caught not tracking runners on occasion which has allowed opposition teams to create dangerous chances, and perhaps even score.

Verdict

The signing of Madueke might have mixed reviews among the fanbase, but the winger has showed glimpses of what he is capable of. His hat-trick against Wolves last season being the most obvious occasion where he proved what he can do.

There is no doubt he will boost the Arsenal attack, thanks to his speed and dribbling ability. He ranked in the 99th percentile compared with other wingers in Europe’s top five leagues for progressive carries last season.

He certainly has the confidence to improve, given what he said back in October 2023: “I definitely back myself. It’s just a matter of time before things click; I’ve just got to get my head down and work hard, I’ve got the ability and talent to do well.”

But if Madueke is to truly become what he is capable of, there are certainly areas where the youngster still has to improve.