Madueke warns Arsenal's Premier League title counts for nothing in Champions League final

Noni Madueke has warned that Arsenal’s Premier League triumph will carry no weight when the Gunners face Paris Saint-Germain in the Champions League final in Budapest on Saturday, insisting the pressure on the club is constant regardless of recent success.

Arsenal ended a 21-year wait for a league title this season, seeing off Manchester City to claim the championship after three consecutive runner-up finishes that had prompted widespread accusations of ‘bottling’ the title race. Manager Mikel Arteta described the moment as a “relief”, and the celebrations that followed were significant. But Madueke, who joined from Chelsea last summer for £52 million, was quick to reframe the narrative ahead of the club’s first-ever Champions League final appearance.

“It is definitely better that we won the Premier League before we go into the Champions League final,” Madueke said. “But I just don’t know if we will be thinking about that. We will be thinking about getting another one, and the Premier League will be irrelevant on that night.”

The winger pushed back firmly against the idea that Arsenal would arrive in Hungary as a side freed from expectation. “The pressure is separate. OK, the pressure of the Champions League is there, but pressure is with us all the time. This is Arsenal Football Club. One of the biggest teams in England. The Champions League is the big one.”

On what a historic victory would mean, Madueke was unambiguous. “To win it would be amazing. The Premier League is massive, but the Champions League is so big, so to be able to do that for the first time in the history of the club would be amazing, and to celebrate it with all the Arsenal fans would be the cherry on top.”

Madueke himself has had a quietly productive debut season in north London, scoring eight goals across 42 appearances — largely in a supporting role behind Bukayo Saka — after initially facing scepticism from a section of the fanbase ahead of his move from Stamford Bridge. He has also earned a place in Thomas Tuchel’s England squad for next month’s World Cup.

Asked whether the title win gave the players a chance to silence their critics, Madueke deflected with a smile. “At the end of the day, all that stuff is irrelevant. I don’t think we worry about it too much. We’ve got to handle things on the pitch, and we leave the bragging rights to the fans.”