Noni Madueke and Bukayo Saka in action for Arsenal in pre-season (Photo by Eddie Keogh, Yong Teck Lim/Getty Images)
Former Liverpool and Aston Villa star Stan Collymore has heaped praise onto Arsenal’s new signings Noni Madueke and Eberechi Eze.
The Gunners signed Madueke from Chelsea and Eze from Crystal Palace this summer, and Collymore has been hugely impressed with what he’s seen so far.
Writing in his exclusive CaughtOffside column, Collymore even made the bold claim that he’d start Madueke over the injured Bukayo Saka, even when the latter returns to fitness.
The pundit says he could see Madueke being ideal for both club and country on that right-hand side due to the slightly different qualities he offers from Saka in that position.
Why Madueke could start over Saka, according to Collymore
Collymore feels Madueke might be better to get the best out of Viktor Gyokeres at Arsenal and Harry Kane for England.
Noni Madueke of Arsenal (Photo by Jack Thomas/Getty Images)
The former forward feels Saka tends to focus more on cutting inside to shoot, while Madueke seems to be more direct in running at his full-back and getting crosses in.
“I love what Eberechi Eze and Noni Madueke have been doing,” Collymore said.
“I think I wrote in this column that I was a bit unsure about Madueke and whether he had the ability to step up, and Eze was obviously very late in the day, was touted to go to Spurs.
“But my word, I love wide men that go on the outside of a full-back five or six times a half, drive the opposition’s back four back towards their own goal, whip it in, and then anything can happen.
“The thing that I love the most is that Madueke has played himself into form with England, and that’s then got him into the Arsenal team – perhaps earlier than he expected with injuries. And now he’s saying to Bukayo Saka, “I want to take your place for club and country”.
“And I think that’s a very old school, really noble thing to do. It’s a competitive environment. And for me, if you were to pick a team now to go into match number one of the World Cup next summer, I would pick Madueke over a fit Saka.
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