Arsenal have made a promising start to the 2025/26 season. The Gunners are looking to end their Premier League title drought this season after finishing second in three consecutive seasons.
They opened up their campaign with back-to-back wins, as they beat Man United at Old Trafford before smashing five past Leeds United at the Emirates Stadium.
Mikel Arteta's side were narrowly defeated by Liverpool at Anfield in their third Premier League match but, despite the scoreline, they were arguably the better team and were unlucky not to come away from the match with any points.
Gary Neville Makes U-Turn on Noni Madueke
Noni Madueke
Noni Madueke has played a key role in Arsenal's start to the season. Eyebrows were raised when the Gunners signed Madueke from Chelsea for a fee of £48.5million this summer. A petition was even set up which protested the signing, which attracted thousands of signatures.
Despite this, Madueke has had a strong start to life in north London and has won over a lot of doubters. One pundit that has changed their opinion of the 23-year-old is Gary Neville.
Speaking on The Overlap, Neville admitted that he understood why Chelsea let him go but has now conceded he looks like a completely different player in a red shirt. "I want to talk about Noni Madueke," Neville said.
"I’ll be honest with you, I’d seen him play quite a lot at Chelsea and when Arsenal signed him I thought, I can see why Chelsea sort of let him go. I tell you – what a different player at Arsenal, and in the England games in the last few weeks.
"He’s obviously a lot better on the right and that was clear when [Bukayo] Saka went off injured the other week so I wonder if Saka could play on the left a bit more this season. Arsenal have a few problems on the left with [Gabriel] Martinelli struggling a bit so maybe Saka could go back there.
"Madueke looks one hell of a player on the right, some of the runs he made were really top level. I was looking at it as a full-back and thinking, 'oh, I didn’t know he had that'.
"He’s the young kid so maybe Saka, the experienced one, moves over. Saka is the better player, let’s be clear, but they could swap during games. Madueke got some stick when he joined Arsenal, some of the fans were really questioning it, but he looks good."
noni madueke
After being named on the bench for Arsenal's opening Premier League game of the season against Man United, Madueke has started their last two matches, and was arguably their best player against Liverpool.
He will be looking to open his account for the club on Saturday afternoon when Arsenal welcome Ange Postecoglou's Nottingham Forest to the Emirates Stadium.