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Gary Neville believes Noni Madueke is silencing his Arsenal doubters. The England winger sealed a £48.5million move to Emirates Stadium from Chelsea this summer.
His arrival was met with mixed reviews from Arsenal supporters. But Madueke has already managed to change opinion with his displays in North London after filling the void left by Bukayo Saka, who remains out with injury.
One of those to have changed his mind on Madueke is Gary Neville, the Manchester United icon, claiming that he has exceeded his expectations.
Speaking on the Gary Neville podcast, he said: “Starting with Arsenal, Madueke, Eze, when you think about Martinelli and Saka, you thought they would dominate the right wing of Arsenal for the next five, ten years, and then you 're watching two players yesterday.
"Saka will come back in and Martinelli will play games as well. But Madueke is a lot better than I imagined and certainly a lot better than Arsenal fans thought he would be.
“A couple of runs he made for England on Tuesday night were a different level. Sometimes you play against wingers you know they’ll be dribbling against you and you know they’ve got a trick and you know you’re going to be in for a difficult game.
“But then you’ve got players who are a level above, I’m not saying Madueke is there yet, but his movements and the things that he’s doing are very, very good and I’m talking from a full-back’s perspective playing against it.”
Neville is not the only one who has been pleasantly surprised by Madueke’s early promise in North London.
Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta was a big fan of his signing but has suggested that the winger is even better than he thought.
Speaking after the weekend’s win against Nottingham Forest, Arteta said: “Yeah, a lot of courage, that's how I describe it. Obviously, a lot of quality, but a lot of courage. We were about to sign him and there was that reaction around him.
“I spoke to him and he was like, 'pzzzt, I go for it, I can't wait to put that shirt on and play for you guys'. I said, 'well, let's bring him'.
“If I was convinced before, I'm more convinced now that he's going to do it. And yeah, I think he has such a power, such a capacity to repeat efforts.
"Because to be able to do that physically, you have to have a different specimen, I think. And he's certainly that. But he's very skilful, very unpredictable, so willing to learn.
“And he brings joy. I look at him and he's always smiling, he's always trying things. He gets one wrong, he goes again. And that's what I love about the creative players, because you need that to be successful.”
Madueke will be aiming to extend his positive recent form over the next week. Arsenal get their Champions League campaign underway against Spanish side Athletic Bilbao in midweek.
They then face Manchester City at Emirates Stadium next weekend ahead of their Carabao Cup meeting with Port Vale.
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