Noni Madueke to Arsenal transfer means one thing for Estevao Willian and Chelsea
by Bobby Vincent · football.londonDespite Arsenal supporters' best efforts, Noni Madueke is on his way to the Emirates Stadium.
Wednesday - 24 hours before Chelsea and the Gunners reached a £52million agreement for the 23-year-old's services - '#NoToMadueke' was trending on social media. Some Arsenal fans even created a petition to try and prevent their club from signing the England international.
While Arsenal supporters may not be pleased at this moment in time, this is a deal they should wait until they reach their full judgement. In Madueke, they have a young player with bags of potential and one you feel is ready to explode at some point. Despite showing warning signs of doing that at Stamford Bridge, the Blues were never able to detonate Madueke.
Either way, a £52million agreement is one that seems to make sense for both clubs. Arsenal get their man, a rotation option with Bukayo Saka or perhaps someone Mikel Arteta will deploy from the left-hand side. As for Chelsea, they pocket a profit of over £20million after signing the England winger from PSV Eindhoven in January 2023 for a figure understood to be close to £30million.
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Chelsea needed to do something regarding their winger situation. Pedro Neto has quickly become Enzo Maresca's first-choice option on the right wing, with the Portuguese producing a remarkable run of performances at the FIFA Club World Cup. Meanwhile, Estevao Willian will arrive at Cobham later this summer from Palmeiras and it goes without saying how highly Chelsea think of the 18-year-old Brazilian.
You can now see a defined role for Estevao, who scored against Chelsea in the Club World Cup quarter-final in Philadelphia earlier in the month, with Madueke departing. At one point, having Neto and Madueke as options made it very difficult to see a world where Estevao would fit into Maresca's plans. Now, though, Estevao will be a rotational option with Neto.
Madueke has been a divisive figure throughout his time at Chelsea. Some believe he has the potential to become a genuine world beater in the future, while others have labelled him as selfish and frustrating. It is safe to say, Maresca has had his issues with Madueke, with the Blues head coach leaving him out of two squads over the course of the 2024/25 Premier League; once a "technical decision" while the other was down to his training levels not being high enough.
There were doubts there and Maresca even seemed frustrated with the situation when asked about Madueke's future after the win against Palmeiras a week ago. Madueke moving to Arsenal will now pave the way for Estevao to flourish. And even if he is just half as good as Chelsea are expecting, then Madueke's move is likely to feel like a blessing in disguise.
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