This week, Rio Ngumoha took to the pitch for Liverpool in the Champions League and delivered a performance from the right flank that will long be spoken about at Anfield.

Two assists, 9/10 attempted dribbles, 14 progressive carries, and 30 overall, and 10/13 ground duels won. That was the Englishman’s absurd stat-sheet against Villarreal.

Ngumoha was able to have an impact in Europe rivalled only in recent years at Liverpool on the right-hand side by Mohamed Salah, and his performance truly does beg the question: should Bukayo Saka be worried?

Bukayo Saka has competition for England, and maybe even at Arsenal, in Rio Ngumoha

Some readers might consider it a stretch, but it’s well-known, as revealed by transfer expert David Ornstein, that Mikel Arteta is an admirer of the 18-year-old.

For England, Ngumoha is already receiving call-ups, despite the last Liverpool starboy, Trent Alexander-Arnold, being oddly absent from international line-ups in his Anfield prime.

At just 18 years of age, the sole thing that is missing from Ngumoha’s locker is goalscoring threat. Additionally, his consistency remains unproven.

But if that’s Ngumoha’s biggest problem(s) at 18, Saka should be worried. Because in his declining form, as the mileage from season upon season of Premier League minutes imprints its mark on his play, Liverpool's starboy could be the future.

In comparison to his predecessor on the right, Salah was once a similar talent at Ngumoha’s age, albeit held back by the Egyptian FA’s reluctance to let him leave for Europe.

As a youngster, the Egyptian King was lightning quick, agile, a superb take-on artist, and his goalscoring bag was comparable to the creativity displayed by Ngumoha.

Flash forward to Salah’s mid-20s, and his game was almost perfected. In his early 30s, he became the complete Premier League forward, unlike any other in English history.

The 18-year-old was able to spend a solitary season in the first team under the Egyptian’s wing, who no doubt revealed the blueprint for Premier League success to him, and that should deeply trouble the Arsenal man.

What Saka is facing is a younger, hungrier, and arguably better, in their current forms, player than he is. And that’s a tough winger to beat out, when competing for future places in both the England, and maybe Arsenal, line-up - when Saka was in his prime years, the only ageing winger able to best him was… Salah.

What is working in Saka’s favour, ahead of what promises to be England’s most exciting winger rivalry in the coming years, is that he hasn’t yet achieved it all.

Sure, he’s a Premier League winner with Arsenal, and he has enjoyed standout seasons as the very best fielded by the Gunners. Individually, what does he have to show for it?

He doesn’t have a PFA Players’ Player of the Year title - Salah holds three, the most ever, and even Phil Foden bagged one - nor does he possess a Golden Boot, or a Playmaker Award.

Those individual accolades are still up for grabs as Saka enters the second phase of his career, and this isn’t too dissimilar to what Salah experienced entering his 30s.

Despite that age difference, Saka simply has far more mileage at the top level than his Egyptian rival had in his mid 20s; like Salah, the Englishman must continue to improve.

If he doesn’t, surely the Arsenal icon will come to understand that Ngumoha is breathing down his neck - even if Liverpool never sanction a move, the 18-year-old appears set to become an England mainstay beyond 2030.

If Saka wants to keep Ngumoha at bay, he has a tall task ahead of him. He must unlock the one area of his game that he has, so far, been unable to: become a top goalscorer, and provide both Arsenal and England with a quality that his 18-year-old rival hasn’t yet managed to discover.

Many people have written off the Arsenal winger, but the best players use that as fuel. Ngumoha is going nowhere, but Saka has a lot left to prove before he can roll over.