10 May 2026 14:07 BST |<\/span> Cameron Smith Accredited sports journalist covering football since 2020 <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n Arsenal winger Noni Madueke has revealed the real reason why he decided to join the club from Chelsea last summer.<\/p>\n The England international completed a surprise \u20ac56 million transfer to the Emirates Stadium in July, despite Arsenal fans protesting against the deal, and he has featured on a regular basis since his arrival, largely thanks to Bukayo Saka\u2019s injury troubles in 2025-26.<\/p>\n Madueke has made 40 appearances across all competitions so far this season, registering 11 goal contributions, and he is widely expected to be selected by England boss Thomas Tuchel for the upcoming World Cup after impressing for the national team over the past 12 months.<\/p>\n The 24-year-old\u2019s move to Arsenal certainly raised eyebrows, especially considering the transfer fee involved and the fact he still had five years remaining on his contract at Chelsea, but Madueke has confirmed why he opted to join the Gunners last year.<\/p>\n Speaking to Sky Sports<\/b> about his move across London, Madueke admitted: \u201cI just believed Arsenal were going to win trophies so that\u2019s why I moved.<\/p>\n \u201cThe England boys helped me a lot, I was already close to them so it was great. The whole club helped me though, everyone in and around the club was helpful. It\u2019s full of good people and people who want to work hard and achieve something. It was easy in that sense.\u201d<\/p>\n Despite Chelsea\u2019s triumph in the Club World Cup final after Madueke\u2019s exit, his move to Arsenal looks inspired, with the Gunners able to win the Premier League and Champions League double this season and his former club potentially set to finish in the bottom half of the English top flight table if they are unable to improve their current form.<\/p>\n Although Arsenal could win a historic double this season, they have no plans to rest on their laurels and the club are set to back Mikel Arteta in the transfer market this summer.<\/p>\n FootballTransfers<\/b> understands that Newcastle United trio Valentino Livramento, Sandro Tonali and Anthony Gordon are wanted by the north London giants, while Arsenal have also been heavily linked with a blockbuster move for Atletico Madrid striker Julian Alvarez.<\/p>\n In order to fund such business, however, a number of stars are expected to be sold, with the futures of Gabriel Jesus, Gabriel Martinelli, Ben White and Ethan Nwaneri currently uncertain.<\/p>\n Confirmed: Arsenal want to sign \u20ac60m ‘Duracell Bunny’<\/b><\/p>\n Arsenal tipped to make Mbappe signing that could \u2018change the course of history\u2019<\/b><\/p>\n Transfer Rumours: Man Utd promise Tonali offer as Liverpool bid laughed off<\/b><\/p>\n Check out FootballTransfers’ new app for all of football’s big storylines, transfer rumours and exclusive news in one convenient place directly on your mobile device.<\/p>\n The FootballTransfers app is available on Google Play and in the Apple App Store. Download here:<\/p>\n \u2022Google Play<\/b><\/p>\n \u2022App Store<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" 10 May 2026 14:07 BST | 4 min read \u00a9 IMAGO Cameron Smith | Digital…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7183,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7182","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-chelsea"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7182","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7182"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7182\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/7183"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7182"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7182"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7182"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n 4 min read <\/p>\n<\/source><\/source><\/picture>
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\n Digital Content Producer<\/span>\n <\/div>\n<\/source><\/source><\/picture>
Arsenal\u2019s summer transfer plans<\/h2>\n
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