It was an incredible atmosphere and we had really missed this feeling. The players and staff are great people, they help me every day, and I wanted to dedicate the goal to them as a well as the fans
Last week, Nick Woltemade hit rock bottom. His own goal cost Newcastle United the Wear-Tyne derby against Sunderland, and he felt he owed supporters a reprieve. That came on Saturday, with two goals in the final match of 2025 at St James' Park against Chelsea. It was an extremely impressive way to bounce back. With the Magpies leading, in full control at half time and Woltemade squandering a chance for a hat-trick, it felt as though a huge victory was in reach.
Madueke returned from a two-month knee injury during the north London derby before scoring their second in their 3-1 victory against Bayern Munich. It was his first goal for Arsenal in all competitions, his first-ever Champions League goal and his first for any club since May, when he scored for Chelsea against Djurgarden, ending a run of 17 games without a goal.
"The boss always speaks about us getting them behind us," said Konsa. "When things aren't going well, it's important the fans stay with us. You can see, at times, they get a bit frustrated with some of our players. We have to be able to deal with that. I try to stay positive as much as possible. Last season we went through a blip but, at that point, we were scoring goals. It just felt a bit different. Now we ain't scoring as much, it just feels a bit low."
"It is helping in the same direction, so hopefully, we can do it this week and move forward - and take these nonsense questions and narratives away from our daily [lives]. "I am a person who thinks a lot before saying anything. I say this because I believe that things can improve, but now is a moment to ignore the noise and focus on what I have to do. My job is clear."
Outside people don't know anything. That's the type of person he is. That doesn't mean that he's not a great manager. When we were winning, everybody was on our side, now it's like all the fans are against us and all that. I don't get it. We're here and we know what's going on, we know what we're feeling, we know what we're working for, but fans are going to be fans, we can't do nothing about it.
