Following a brilliant start to the season with the Blues - which included a first Chelsea hat-trick against Wolverhampton Wanderers - the current international window has seen Madueke called up to the senior England side for the first time by their interim manager Lee Carsley, who Noni knows well from their time working together with the country’s Under-21s.

However, when it was suggested to the winger that Carsley’s appointment gave him some added motivation to impress during the early stages of 2024/25, the 22-year-old insists his focus has always been primarily on Chelsea.

‘Not so much England, more so because I had a new coach at Chelsea and, of course, you want to impress your new coach at your club, and just play well,’ he told TalkSport.

‘Every time I get the chance to play for Chelsea, it’s such a massive club, I feel like it’s a thing of pride and you want to do the best you can. I always want to improve my game, so this season I just wanted to start as well as possible.’

That new club boss is of course Maresca, who arrived from Leicester City to take charge of the Blues in the summer. It may be early days in the season for Chelsea, with just three Premier League matches under our belts, but Madueke has already seen enough to be sure both he and the team are going to improve under the Italian’s guidance.

‘He’s a great guy, a good manager, a very good tactician. He’s helping me a lot with my game, little details. Things that you wouldn’t necessarily think of yourself.

‘I always feel like a great manager will say 'this can help you score more' or 'this can help you get in behind more'. Little things like that I feel like he’s helping me with,’ Noni said.

‘I feel like Enzo, in terms of the tactics, he’s one of the best for sure. He’s very good tactically and he simplifies the game for you, and as a player that’s what you want from a coach.

‘It’s a winger’s dream. He wants you to stay as high as possible up the pitch and wide, threaten the back line, make runs and go one-v-one. For me, that’s my bread and butter, so it’s really good to have him as a coach.’

Maresca wasn’t the only new face arriving at Cobham over the summer, with several players also coming in to join the Chelsea squad. That obviously means greater competition for places in the team, and for Noni it is a situation which should be embraced by anyone with ambitions of succeeding at the highest level.

He said: ‘If you want to play for one of the top clubs in the world, you’re going to have to deal with competition. That’s not something you should shy away from, that’s something you should just take head on.

‘If you believe you’re a good player you want to be around good players, because it increases your level. You don’t want to feel like you’re going to play every week and can just cruise through because that allows you to drop your standards a little bit.

‘So it’s good that we have a lot of great players in the building, so the training level is better and ultimately we’re better on the pitch when it comes down to it.’

One team-mate Madueke already knows well is Cole Palmer. In addition to playing together at Chelsea last season, the duo have risen through the youth ranks at international level and were both part of the England side which won last year’s European Under-21 Championship under Carsley’s management.

It is no surprise then that Palmer is someone Madueke enjoys playing alongside.

He said: ‘We’ve been playing with each other for probably eight years now and in the exact same positions we’re playing in now. So it’s great he’s my team-mate and we’ve got a good relationship off the pitch as well, but on the pitch we know each other’s games.

‘It’s easy to play with someone like that because he knows what I like to do and I know what he likes to do. We have a good chemistry and long may it continue.'