Madueke apologises to Wolves fans
Noni Madueke was given the freedom of Wolverhampton, just hours after insulting the city.
Wolves granted the winger all the space he wanted to score a 15-minute hat-trick as Chelsea thrashed Wolves 6-2 at Molineux on Sunday.
It came after Madueke, who has 991,000 followers, was jeered from the start by the home fans following an Instagram post on Saturday in which he offensively mocked the city.
He then scored three second-half goals to seal Enzo Maresca’s first Premier League victory as Chelsea boss.
Madueke, 22, shared his location as Wolverhampton in the post but quickly deleted it and used his post-match interview to apologise.
The England Under-21 international said: “I just want to apologise to everyone that I might have offended. It is just a human mistake, an accident. It wasn’t meant to be out on my socials like that. I’m sure Wolverhampton is a nice town and I’m sorry.
“It was a mistake and you learn from those things. Hopefully nothing like that happens again.
“In terms of the boos, I expected it but it is part of the game. You have to be able to play under that sort of pressure.”
An even first half had ended 2-2, with Chelsea twice pegged back by goals from Matheus Cunha and Jorgen Strand Larsen.
Nicolas Jackson had given the visitors a second-minute lead, with Cole Palmer restoring it in first-half injury time before Larsen’s quick reply.
Chelsea and Madueke, who has four goals in his two appearances so far this season, then cut Wolves apart after the break with Joao Felix, who completed his £45m move from Atletico Madrid earlier this week, adding a sixth.
Maresca refused to blame Madueke for his post and believes he is sensible enough to know when he has made a mistake.
He said: “I’m the kind of person who trusts people. People are mature enough to know what is correct and what is not correct. Noni is mature enough to understand if what he did was correct or not correct.
“I didn’t know about Noni’s social post before the game.
“I can judge Noni’s performance, which was fantastic. Since day one I said he’s the kind of winger I really like.
“The best thing was not the hat-trick but the way he defended their counter attack and that showed the right mentality of what I’m demanding from the players.”
—BBC
