Noni Madueke revealed that he had just five minutes to prepare to start our 4-0 win against Leeds United - but that was more than enough for him to have a massive influence on the result.
After Bukayo Saka picked up an injury during the warm-up and withdrew from the starting line-up, Noni was given a quick tap on the shoulder and within moments, he found himself walking out of the tunnel rather than sitting on the bench.
But by the time he had returned to the away changing room for half-time, he had laid on an assist for Martin Zubimendi’s opener, and his brilliant corner forced Karl Darlow to concede an own goal to put us in command of proceedings and pave the way for an excellent win.
Reflecting on his hectic afternoon, the winger said: “I didn't know what happened to B. In terms of the time I had before the game, it was not much, maybe five minutes to warm up and go out and play. It's the first time that's happened to me, so I was just happy that I was going to get to play from the start, to be honest.
“As an attacker, you always try and make an impact in an attacking sense, whether you can score or create goals or create chances, wreak havoc and pose a threat, so I'm happy that I was able to do that today.
“You’re always very happy when you win, and we won today, so it’s fantastic. Everyone's happy with a smile on their face.”
Having returned to winning ways in the Premier League, we have stretched our lead at the top of the table to seven points ahead of Manchester City and Aston Villa’s games on Sunday.
Noni believes that the confidence gained from this result, plus the midweek win against Kairat Almay, means we’re building nicely towards our Carabao Cup semi-final second leg against his former club Chelsea on Tuesday, as we aim to take another step closer to clinching some silverware this season.
Reflecting on this result at Elland Road, he added: “It’s massive. Obviously, our last couple of performances in the Premier League haven't been the greatest in terms of results, but today was a real statement.
“We’re going to watch what \[City and Villa\] do and focus on our game as well on Tuesday. That's most important for us.
“Adding confidence after a performance like this, not only just the win, but a really dominant performance. We're going into that game on Tuesday knowing what's at stake and knowing what we need to do.”
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