Jermaine Jenas thinks 26-year-old Tottenham player will outperform Martin Odegaard this season

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Jermaine Jenas has backed Tottenham Hotspur midfielder James Maddison to outperform Arsenal star Martin Odegaard this season.

Jenas has been speaking on talkSPORT and believes Maddison will rack up more goals and assists than Odegaard throughout the campaign. 

Both Maddison and Odegaard have enjoyed brilliant starts to the season, with Arsenal and Tottenham yet to taste defeat.

The North London rivals had to settle for a 2-2 draw in the derby on Sunday and it’s fair to say that Maddison impressed on the day.

The 26-year-old grabbed two assists as he set up Son Heung-min for both goals and Jenas believes he’s capable of outperforming Odegaard this season. 

Jenas says Maddison will outperform Odegaard

Speaking on talkSPORT, Jenas claimed that Maddison could ‘easily’ end up with more goals and assists than Odegaard this season.

“I like Odegaard, massively, and I think he had an unbelievable season last year,” the former Spurs man said. “It’s going to be interesting to see at the end of this year because they have a specific job those two players [Maddison and Odegaard] and it’s about goals and assists.

“What are they bringing to the table in terms of goals and assists? And I don’t think you’d sit there right now and say ‘I bet you 100 per cent Odegaard’s going to get more goals and assists than Maddison’.”

Darren Bent then responded: “I’ll take that bet.”

“You want to take that? Okay,” Jenas added. “We’ll talk off air and we’ll have a bet.”

“We’ll do the football shirt thing, we’ll do something around the football shirts. But I can’t see that happening, I think Maddison will have easily, if not the same, more goals and assists than Odegaard.” 

Odegaard has already netted twice for the Gunners in the Premier League this season, while he also scored in the Champions League against PSV last week.

As for Maddison, he’s racked up two goals and four assists in his first six Premier League appearances for Spurs.

It’s fair to say that Maddison has enjoyed the better start to the season, but Odegaard put up sensational numbers for Arsenal last time out.