Arsenal of England winger, Noni Madueke again proved his status as a major ‘contributing factor’ for The Gunners, as he got off their bench to win a late penalty that helped them draw away to Bayer Leverkusen of Germany.
Sports247 reports that Arsenal’s coach, Mikel Arteta initially placed Madueke on the visiting team’s bench for the UEFA Champions League round of 16 first leg fixture, but the gaffer eventually tuned to his hero when the going got pretty tough.
Incidentally, the star who Arteta had to yank off was his captain for the night, Bukayo Saka, as the usually reliable Nigerian-born winger again appeared out of form and the gaffer had to pull him out 15 minutes into the second half.
The 24-year-old Saka, who has scored nine goals and provided five assists in 39 games, recently signed a new £300,000 per-week contract but he has been troubled by injuries and his fitness was again suspect Wednesday night against Leverkusen.
After going on in place of Saka, Madueke won a very controversial penalty that Kai Havertz converted against his former club in the 89th-minute to earn Arsenal a 1-1 draw, giving them a slight advantage at home next week.
Arteta retorted: “Noni has been contributing and being a real threat and I decided to make the change. I thought that we needed something else.”
