Noni Madueke: Why Chelsea star walked immediately down tunnel after Arsenal substitution | OneFootball

Noni Madueke has responded to criticism after being spotted immediately heading for the Chelsea dressing room after being substituted against Arsenal.

Enzo Maresca made the decision to hook Madueke in the London derby, which ended in a 1-1 draw, after 68 minutes for Mykhailo Mudryk.

Madueke made his way down the tunnel and returned shortly after, however his reaction to the change came under heavy scrutiny.

TNT Sports pundit Rio Ferdinand was among those, saying: “It’s disrespectful to your teammates. I think the manager protecting him is mad, that’s a two-week fine!”

The 22-year-old has been on international duty with England this week and provided an assist for Ollie Watkins’ goal against Greece on Thursday.

Madueke, who will say it himself, has not been in his best form in recent weeks, but Maresca has continued to trust the attacker for both his attacking and defensive contributions.

Madueke's last league goal for Chelsea came against Nottingham Forest at the beginning of October. / IMAGO / Every Second Media

He has now explained why he went down the tunnel and revealed this isn’t a one-off occasion.

As quoted by the Daily Mail, Madueke admitted: “I literally went down the tunnel to go to the toilet and I came back 30 seconds later. If you watch a lot of games when I come off, I'm always going straight down the tunnel to go to the toilet. It is nothing major at all.”

Maresca defended his player after the draw in the Premier League, responding: "The problem is when you change a player, they are never happy. Probably the only way to be happy is after the Wolves game where he scored a hat-trick and we changed him, so he was happy. It's not only about Noni, it's about all the players.

"It's a good thing because they want to be there until the end. But in that moment, we thought in different ways, probably Pedro with Timber could be a little bit more aggressive - and also with Misha. So it was a tactical decision, no more than that."

Madueke, who has scored five goals in all competitions this season, will be hoping to add to his contributions on Sunday against the Republic of Ireland, before returning to Chelsea to prepare for their Premier League clash against newly-promoted and Maresca’s former side, Leicester City.