Noni Madueke has emphasised that Arsenal are a collective, not just a group of individuals, after receiving a Player of the Week nomination for his performance away to Club Brugge.
Arsenal put in a good performance away to Club Brugge on Wednesday night, but Noni Madueke was the star of the show.
The winger’s opening goal was arguably his team’s Goal of the Season so far, even if his second was more of a tap-in. After the match, Madueke received UEFA’s Player of the Match award, Arsenal’s Player of the Match award, and he was nominated for the Champions League’s Player of the Week award.
It wouldn’t have been too unreasonable for Madueke to sit back and lap up praise after the game, but instead he insisted the team comes first.
“We’re tight, I feel like that’s the main thing,” Madueke said. “We want each other to do well, we know that there are loads of minutes for all of us. We know that we have top, top players everywhere in the squad.
“It’s about all of us, as a collective, it’s not really about any individual. We know that we all have a part to play, so that’s a good thing about this team.”
Madueke certainly showed some of that collective mindset after his first goal, running to celebrate with the staff and players on the bench.
Away from Madueke’s performance, Wednesday night also provided some information on the nature of the player’s recent injury.
Though plenty of reports confirmed that Madueke had suffered a knee injury back in September, it was never clear exactly what kind. But given the strapping the player was wearing during Wednesday’s game, Dr. Rajpal Brar suggests the problem was likely an MCL injury.
There’s no doubt Arsenal fans are glad to see the winger back fully fit and firing again now, and they’ll hope he can carry his Champions League goalscoring form into the Premier League before long.