- Noni Madueke insulted Wolverhampton in deleted social media post
- Winger then scored hat-trick in Chelsea's 6-2 win at Wolves
- Madueke apologised for causing offence
Noni Madueke has apologised to the people of Wolverhampton after insulting the city prior to Chelsea's win at Molineux.
The Blues ran riot against Wolves on Sunday, beating their hosts 6-2 to earn a first Premier League victory under new head coach Enzo Maresca.
Madueke scored a sensational hat-trick in the second half to give his side breathing space having gone into the half-time break at 2-2. But prior to the game, he found himself embroiled in some controversy.
The winger accidentally uploaded a message to his Instagram story which read: "Everything about this place (Wolverhampton) is sh*t." This was swiftly deleted but not before it had been spotted and shared by thousands of his followers.
Wolves fans booed Madueke with every touch but had to watch on as he tore the hosts limb from limb with his first career hat-trick.
But speaking to the press post-match, Madueke took time to say sorry to Wolverhampton as a city.
"I just want to apologise to everyone that I might have offended," he said. "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."
Chelsea boss Maresca was asked about Madueke's social media post in his press conference, though admitted he was initially none-the-wiser to the uproar.
"I'm the kind of person who trusts people," Maresca said. "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."
