Noni Madueke has scored four goals for Chelsea in the opening seven Premier League games(Image: Benjamin Cremel/AFP)

Noni Madueke makes Chelsea admission that will excite Enzo Maresca and fans

Noni Madueke has been in brilliant form thus far this season and that could well be helped by the 22-year-old Chelsea wide man putting in some extra hours over the summer

11 Oct 2024, 05:00 by Bobby Vincent · football.london

Over the summer, Noni Madueke wanted to take his game to another level. So far this season, it looks like he is well on track to do just that.

The 22-year-old had a disappointing 2023/24 campaign at Chelsea - in what was his first full season with the club. In 23 appearances in the Premier League, just 13 of those were starts under the now-departed Mauricio Pochettino. In that time, he scored five goals and provided two assists.

So, what could Madueke do? Not selected for the Euro 2024 squad with England, the winger, signed for around £30million from PSV Eindhoven in January 2023, had a long summer period to work on his game.

Of course, Madueke was taken to the United States to work with new head coach Enzo Maresca and the rest of the squad during the club's pre-season tour but the winger felt like he needed to do more. And that he did.

Madueke worked with personal football coach Saul Isakkson-Hurst to work on several areas of his game. Isakkson-Hurst has worked with the likes of Max Aarons, Folarin Balogun, Samuel Iling-Junior, Rico Henry, and loads more in the past to undertake one-on-one sessions.

"[It was] just what I needed to become a top wide player; movement, finishing on both feet, crossing, just everything," Madueke said in an England press conference earlier in the week. "All the tools that I had, but also knew I needed to develop as well. Yeah, so the off season was a great time for that."

Madueke's link up play with Cole Palmer has been a particular success factor of Chelsea's season so far. In fact, all four of Madueke's goals this term - in the Premier League - have been set up by Palmer, who is working with the winger at St. George's Park with the rest of the England squad.

For someone so confident in his ability - something you can see every time he walks onto a pitch - Madueke is well aware he is far from the finished article yet. There is still so much for the former PSV winger to improve in his game but his ambition is to be the very best.

Speaking in the summer of 2023 ahead of the 23/24 season, Madueke said: "Next season for me is just about the becoming one of the top players in my position in the league and contributing to wins with goals and assists and helping my teammates. That is my aim."

To become the best, you have to train like nobody else will. Madueke going out of his way to improve on his game in the summer - well that is the sort of sacrifice that the elite footballers take. Nobody is saying Madueke will not become an elite footballer one day.

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