Noni Madueke said what Arsenal fans already know about Mikel Arteta

When Arsenal signed Noni Madueke from Chelsea for that price, everyone, including some Arsenal fans, was really sceptical of the signing and ridiculed Arsenal for spending that much money on a player who would probably not be starting that many games, at least in his preferred position.

However, Madueke has been good whenever he has been fit. He has scored important goals, he's made important assists, and made life hell for the defender marking him.

He was mainly brought in to be a backup to Bukayo Saka and provide some extra coverage on either flank, and I think that will ultimately be really important and definitely worth the money that Arsenal have paid for him, just because of how important Bukayo Saka is for Arsenal, and how good Madueke can be in his absence.

And he looks better than he looked at Chelsea. He was good there, but I think he has gained a bit more consistency to his game, and that's going to be really important for him and for Arsenal going forward.

Noni Madueke said what Arsenal fans already know about Mikel Arteta

Madueke recently opened up about how good a manager Mikel Arteta is and how much he has already helped the Englishman in his first few months at the club.

He did claim that he has improved a lot, and he talked about which bits specifically Arteta has worked with him on.

He said: “Definitely. For me personally, Mikel wants me to play freely within the structure of the team, of course, to make sure that I’m still diligent. But he’s definitely great in the sense that he wants to see skill and he wants to be excited.

"He says that all the time we have a great balance between being structured and being defensively sound – working hard as a team and being difficult to break down – but also versatile in the sense that we can be really free and attacking. I don’t really see much weakness in our team.

“I feel like that’s our goal to keep winning in every single competition. Fixtures are coming thick and fast and, for us, it’s fantastic to have competition for places. That’s exactly what we need when we’re fighting on all four fronts. And it’s great for keeping the standards high on the training pitch.”

It is just so good to see these sort of anecdotes from players who work under Arteta. It is really fun to read through them and see how good a manager Arteta really is.

It is so important for players like Madueke to have the constant backing of the manager and for him to tell the player where he should be improving on.

Arteta clearly loves doing that with every single player that he has, and in turn, they start improving with time, and that helps the squad more than anything else.

Arteta is a really good coach, and he has got a really good player in Madueke. And if he can get him to where his potential is, Arsenal can be very, very lucky to call that £60 million signing a bargain.