Rio Ferdinand has tipped Max Dowman for superstardom (Picture: YouTube)
Rio Ferdinand fears one of Arsenal’s most influential players under Mikel Arteta could be looking for a new club in the near future following Max Dowman’s stunning breakthrough.
The 16-year-old announced himself in the grand manner on Saturday night, coming to his side’s rescue against Everton with a match winning cameo having been brought on with the scores level and just over a quarter of an hour remaining.
Dowman proceeded to take the game by the scruff of the neck and it was his cross that helped create the pandemonium which led to Viktor Gyokeres breaking the deadlock with the clock ticking towards 90 minutes.
Better was still to come for the Hale End Academy graduate who became the youngest scorer in Arsenal’s history moments later when he outwitted two defenders, sprinted the length of the pitch and rolled the ball into the empty net with Jordan Pickford stranded up field.
Dowman looks guaranteed to feature more prominently in the coming weeks as Arsenal eye all four major prizes on offer, but Ferdinand fears the teenager’s emergence could have consequences for Arsenal captain Martin Odegaard.
The Norway international had been on the periphery anyway this season due to injury, but Dowman’s breakthrough will only see the competition for places in Arsenal’s midfield intensify moving forwards.
‘You know Odegaard might not get a game now,’ Ferdinand told his YouTube channel when considering the impact Dowman’s coming of age moment could have on the more established members of Arteta’s squad.
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Max Dowman is the talk of world football after Arsenal’s win over Everton (Picture: Getty)
‘Seriously, your captain might be gone. You’ve got Dowman who can play his position, Eze can play his position. Saka can play his position and go in there and go central. It’s mad.
‘Saka will have a bigger season next year than he does this year trust me, stats-wise and data-wise. This year he’s been down.’
Asked how Arteta should use his newest attacking weapon over the course of the run-in, Ferdinand added: ‘Just continue what he’s been doing this week.
Max Dowman is now the youngest goalscorer in Premier League history (Picture: Getty)
‘Dipping him in, just keep giving him 15 or 20 minutes. Just keep putting him in because there’s no substitute for that confidence and what that can do as an injection of energy into your team.’
Odegaard, meanwhile, is battling to regain full fitness having missed the last five matches as a result of a knee injury he aggravated against Brentford last month..
Arsenal’s skipper has been ruled out of tomorrow night’s Champions League last 16 second leg tie against Bayer Leverkusen but Arteta hinted their is an outside chance he could have a role to play in Sunday’s Carabao Cup final against Manchester City.
Arteta said: ‘So we’re really pushing, he really wants to try to be available, but we’ll have to wait and see in the next few days when he trains with the team how he feels.
Arsenal captain Martin Odegaard is still struggling with a knee injury (Picture: Getty)
‘We know the game that we’re going to be playing in a few days again, and the more players that we have the better.’
Odegaard, himself, knows a thing or two about being tipped for stardom at such a young age given the hype that accompanied his debut for his boyhood club, before his much-hyped move to Real Madrid.
Asked about the role he could play in keeping Dowman’s feet on the ground, Arteta said: ‘All the experiences that the players have and they can share and explain.
‘It’s very useful because probably he’s going through things that some of us in the past would have been at his age, not many, but Martin is a really good example.
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