Chelsea boss Maresca responds to reports linking Madueke with Arsenal | OneFootball

Chelsea boss Enzo Maresca insists Noni Madueke is in the right frame of mind to help the team despite the transfer speculation around him.

Arsenal are interested in signing the England international this summer.

But Madueke has been a regular for Chelsea during their Club World Cup campaign, and came on against Palmeiras in the quarter-final to help his side to victory.

And Maresca says Madueke will be part of the squad to face Fluminense in the semi-final.

“Personally I think the same noise came before Palmeiras,” Maresca said.

“You see we gave him half an hour and he was very good, so I don’t have any doubt that if we need Noni he is going to help us, at the same moment I can understand that as a human being when there are many noise around you it’s not easy to deal with that, but hopefully he can deal with that.”

Maresca may well opt to hand Joao Pedro his first start for the club against Fluminense and says he is happy to have three top striking options in the Brazilian, Liam Delap and Nicolas Jackson: “I said already many times, in my mind, or in my idea, I prefer to have four or five players scoring 10-12 goals each, than just one striker scoring 40 goals. So, you can see last year, what we have done with Noni, what we have done with Enzo Fernandez.

“And we expect next season, more goals from all our attacking players. But for sure, as I said, the ones that they are playing as a No.9 with us, they know exactly Chelsea’s style.”

The influx of strikers does mean Jackson, who is available after suspension, is under increased pressure.

“Nicolas is training well, unfortunately, almost the last two games he played he was sent off, he was red carded, unfortunately for him, unfortunately for us,” Maresca said when asked about Jackson.

“But he’s working well, he played after the Newcastle red card, he played the Conference League final, he scored, we won, and then for the new season, also for the future, we decide to bring another No.9, and at this moment, it’s okay.”