{"id":374188,"date":"2025-08-26T05:55:16","date_gmt":"2025-08-26T05:55:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/374188\/"},"modified":"2025-08-26T05:55:16","modified_gmt":"2025-08-26T05:55:16","slug":"gary-neville-thinks-one-arsenal-player-came-alive-after-changing-position-against-leeds-united","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/374188\/","title":{"rendered":"Gary Neville thinks one Arsenal player came alive after changing position against Leeds United"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Arsenal have opened the season with two victories, teeing up a mouthwatering clash against title rivals Liverpool.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Riccardo Calafiori believes Arsenal can win silverware<\/a> this season, and the start to the Premier League campaign suggests he may not be far wrong.<\/p>\n

Two games, two wins, two clean sheets and six goals scored is a pretty impressive start for the Gunners.<\/p>\n

Mikel Arteta<\/a> even has a new signing to unleash after Arsenal completed the capture of Eberechi Eze<\/a> from Crystal Palace.<\/p>\n

Eze\u2019s Arsenal debut could come at Liverpool, as the Gunners travel to take on their title rivals at Anfield this weekend.<\/p>\n

Arsenal\u2019s preparations have been dealt a major blow, though, as both Martin Odegaard and Bukayo Saka picked up injuries<\/a> against Leeds United.<\/p>\n

\"NoniPhoto by Catherine Ivill \u2013 AMA\/Getty ImagesGary Neville on Arsenal winger Noni Madueke<\/strong><\/p>\n

Odegaard and Saka are both set to miss out against Liverpool, though their injuries do not appear to be long-term.<\/p>\n

Gary Neville is backing Mikel Merino to replace Odegaard<\/a>, believing that Arteta will prioritise physicality in midfield.<\/p>\n

Eze may come in on the left flank, with Noni Madueke<\/a> moving back over to the right side to replace Saka.<\/p>\n

Madueke is a right-sided winger by trade, but operated down the left at times for Chelsea last season, and started there for Arsenal against Leeds.<\/p>\n

Neville has told The Gary Neville Podcast that he actually thought Madueke came alive for Arsenal against Leeds when he replaced Saka on the right flank.<\/p>\n

Neville noted that most wingers play on the opposite side to their stronger foot, and playing a left-footer like Madueke on the left flank just isn\u2019t seen as often in the modern game.<\/p>\n

The former United man is backing Madueke to start on the right at Liverpool, and feels that he looked \u2018a lot better\u2019 after switching flanks.<\/p>\n

\u201cI actually thought the minute Saka went off and Madueke went to the right-hand side, I thought, all of a sudden, he looked at home,\u201d said Neville.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a strange phenomenon, isn\u2019t it, to see a left-winger play on the left side of midfield; we don\u2019t see that too much, they\u2019re always opposite-footed wingers now.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo see Madueke go over to that right-hand side on his left foot, I thought he looked a lot better,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Noni Madueke deal could pay early dividends<\/strong><\/p>\n

Many Arsenal fans were sceptical about signing Madueke earlier in the summer window.<\/p>\n

Some simply didn\u2019t want to keep signing Chelsea players, but others had legitimate question marks over Madueke\u2019s quality.<\/p>\n

The belief was that Madueke would not improve Arsenal\u2019s starting XI and was too expensive to simply come in as cover for Saka.<\/p>\n

Well, just a few weeks into the new season, Madueke may now need to start in place of Saka in one of Arsenal\u2019s biggest games of the season.<\/p>\n

Ethan Nwaneri could have stepped up, but Arsenal can now call on a player with significant Premier League experience in Madueke.<\/p>\n

The flexibility to play on either flank could be crucial over the course of the season, and Madueke will look to prove his doubters wrong with a big display at Anfield.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Arsenal have opened the season with two victories, teeing up a mouthwatering clash against title rivals Liverpool. Riccardo…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":374189,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8814],"tags":[161,748,393,162,1676,4884,1860,1185,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-374188","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-leeds","8":"tag-arsenal","9":"tag-britain","10":"tag-england","11":"tag-english-premier-league","12":"tag-gary-neville","13":"tag-great-britain","14":"tag-leeds","15":"tag-noni-madueke","16":"tag-uk","17":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115093525724854803","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/374188","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=374188"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/374188\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/374189"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=374188"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=374188"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=374188"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}