Noni Madueke had been one of Arsenal’s few shining lights in the first-half against Manchester City but was replaced at half-time with Bukayo Saka coming on in his place
Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta has confirmed that Noni Madueke was forced to come off with an injury at half-time against Manchester City. The winger was replaced by Bukayo Saka despite being one of the Gunners’ main threats.
Arteta’s men were trailing 1-0 at the break courtesy of Erling Haaland’s opener in the ninth minute. Madueke had caused a number of problems down the right against City full-back Nico O’Reilly.
Despite Madueke’s flashes of quality, Arsenal grew frustrated at City’s stubborn defence, with the former Chelsea winger and Mikel Merino replaced by Saka and Eberechi Eze at the break.
The latter went on to create the equaliser in injury-time with an inch-perfect long-ball over City’s defence for Gabriel Martinelli to equalise. The draw means the Gunners are now five points behind league leaders Liverpool after five games.
After the draw, Arteta was asked if Madueke’s withdrawal was tactical or related to an injury. “No, I think he had an issue very early in the match and he wasn’t well enough to continue,” said Arteta.
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The Spaniard was quizzed about the double substitution in his post-match press conference and whether it was his way of admitting that the team selection wasn’t right. “Not too easy to say that,” he replied.
“I think it’s very clear what we wanted to do. Very well we started the game, I think we completely dominated.
“I think after they scored the goal without doing absolutely nothing before that, we were a bit shaky for five or seven minutes and after that we still got the grip of the game away and started to dominate it.
“In the second half it was a continuation of that with one different player and then with two or three different players.”
Pressed if it is unfair to characterise his line-up as a safety-first selection, he added: “I leave that to you, but for me it’s a lot of attacking players in that team, yes.”
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