Madueke and Gyokeres fire much changed Arsenal to win in Prague
Viktor Gyokeres celebrates Arsenal's second in Prague. Pic: Mike Egerton/Press Association
Viktor Gyokeres and Noni Madueke are becoming increasingly lethal components of Mikel Arteta's winning system as both impressed and scored on another successful Champions League night for the Premier League champions. The enigmatic forwards still have their flaws and critics, but they remain integral to Arteta’s multi-competition masterplan.
Madueke’s story is a remarkable transformation for a player whose €50-plus million signing from Chelsea in 2025 was initially widely derided by critics. His classy early goal in Prague last night set Arsenal on their way to an unbeaten run of 13 Champions League matches, winning 11 of them.
The chance to score came courtesy of an outstanding hooked pass through ball from recalled striker Gyokeres. The Swedish forward then followed up that ninth-minute effort by scoring Arsenal’s second goal, seven minutes before half-time. That made it two goals and three assists in five games for last season’s leading scorer who has had had to get used to watching Kai Havertz start ahead of him in most matches this season.
Arteta’s next big selection decisions will be revealed before Saturday’s Premier League match against Hull. Either way, it is apparent Arteta really has created a squad of winners as he made six changes from the side that won at Liverpool on Sunday to maintain their Premier League title defence and replace Manchester City at the top of the table. His European Gunners were just as ruthlessly efficient.
That said, they could and should have been better in front of goal and survived a late scare against the in-form Czech champions and domestic league leaders that now have the unwanted record-equalling longest winless run of 23 matches in this competition.
Not that Madueke was much to blame for Arsenal’s profligacy, as he continued to impress as stand-in for the injured Bukayo Saka, as he often did last season. He scored three times on Arsenal’s run to last season’s Champions League final, played five times for Thomas Tuchel’s World Cup side in America in the summer, and despite often frustrating Arsenal fans with his end product, his overall contributions to the team have him statistically ranked in the top ten per cent of wingers in all of Europe.
His tactical evolution comes with an individual directness few of his team mates can match. His match-winner at Nottingham Forest was even more crucial than his goal last night and his other efforts against Ipswich Town this season.
And he seems to have developed an understanding with Gyokeres too, as the pair celebrated the Swede’s 38th-minute goal by both grinning as they did the Swede’s trademark hands face-mask celebration together. Gyokeres contributed 21 goals in his debut season to help Arsenal win the title without getting much credit, but has quietly kept to his tasks, and his return in the last few games is a reward for his professionalism as much as anything else.
Having shown great skill to make Madueke’s goal he was equally light-footed for his own goal as he exchanged passes with Mikel Merino before lifting a deft right-foot shot into the Slavia net.
Arteta made half a dozen changes, bringing in Ben White, Piero Hincapie, Mikel Merino, Martin Zubimendi, Eberechi Eze and Gyokeres. There had been talk of another start for teenager Max Dowman, amid his ongoing domestic ban for a red card at Fleetwood last week, but he missed the chance to become Arsenal’s youngest-ever Champions League starter. He did, however, come on in second-half injury time as a substitute.
Slavia were much better after the break as their experienced coach Jindrich Trpisovsky shuffled his side and Arteta’s men played as ig they knew they had the match won.
Tripisovsky is approaching a decade in charge at the hugely atmospheric 19,370-capacity Fortuna Arena, the biggest stadium in the Czech Republic. And if you thought Michael Carrick has been weak handling disciplinary matters at Manchester United, Tripisovsky has axed his leading striker and goalscorer Tomas Chory since last month, for raising a middle finger at a referee.
Arsenal first game here for a match in 1907 and returned in 1926, only to leave it for around 80 years before they returned to face the Czech masters in organised European competition. They have always been the far superior side and proved to be so again without ever having to shift into top gear.
And even on a freezing November night when he had few saves to make, David Raya once again proved himself to be the best on the business as he seemed to secure his ninth clean sheet with a late world-class save from Oskar Kubiak.
It was Slavia’s 12th attempt of the second half and by far the closest they had come to scoring until Wiktor Nowak bundled in a 90th-minute consolation effort from a poorly defended corner to spark a frenzied finish.
Domchak 5, Vlček 5 (Konecny 61), Holeš 5, Zima 6, Kubiak 5, Moses 6, Sadílek 6, Suleiman 5 (N'Guessan 46), Ayaosi 6 (Jurásek 71), Nowak 6, Šturm 5 (Chytil 46).
Chaloupek, Provod, Diakite, Kacor, Markovič, Rezek, Barcot, Kotrba.
Raya 6, White 6 (Timber 78), Konsa 5 (Mosquera 62), Gabriel 6, Hincapie 6, Zubimendi 6, Rice 7, Merino 7 Madueke 8 (Dowman 90), Eze 6 (Tzolis 62), Gyokeres 8 (Odegaard 78).
Kepa, Meslier, Saliba, Calafiori, Lewis-Skelly, Guimaraes, Havertz.
Tobias Stieler (Germany) 6.
19,308.
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