Another day, another record for 15-year-old Max Dowman. But Arsenal’s teenage prodigy is taking everything in his stride, according to his manager, Mikel Arteta.
The winger had already written himself into Arsenal’s history books by becoming the second-youngest player to represent the club and second-youngest to play in the Premier League, with team-mate Ethan Nwaneri holding both records.
But on Wednesday, Dowman became the youngest player – at 15 years and 302 days old – to start a match for Arsenal as he starred in the EFL Cup win over Brighton.
Dowman made his Premier League debut off the bench in Arsenal’s 5-0 win over Leeds in August, but his talent has had everyone at the club excited for a long time.
He has been training with the first team since he was 14 and was one of the standout players on Arsenal’s pre-season tour.
Arteta made 10 changes to the side that beat Crystal Palace on Sunday, and his youthful side contained four teenagers – including Dowman and Andre Harriman-Annous, who were both making their full debuts.
“A tiny smile, that’s what you get with him,” Arteta said when asked how Dowman reacted when he heard he was starting.
“For him, everything is natural, for him, everything is OK. It’s the way he plays, and that’s the secret, that he doesn’t make a big fuss of it.
“He just does what he does best, which is to play football. To play football with a lot of courage and determination, and today again, he has shown some incredible skill, some capacity to run past players at that level in the Premier League at 15. It’s definitely something special.”
Dowman again showed his excellent dribbling ability and, in one notable run, left Brighton’s Diego Gomez scrambling to keep up.
He completed the most dribbles (five), won the most fouls (four), and won the most duels (nine) of any player on the pitch.
“We made 10 changes, we played players that never played together, yet we made two huge debuts for Max and Andre,” Arteta added.
“That feeling of giving the opportunity to somebody and fulfilling a dream is unique, and I’m very happy that things turned out to be very positive, and we managed to win the game.”
Dowman could become the youngest player to play in the Champions League if he makes his debut in the competition before his birthday at the end of the year – and Arteta says the youngster believes he is ready to have an impact in any competition.
“For sure, if you ask him, for sure,” Arteta said.
“That’s what we have to manage, and not only that, there’s a lot of things that are new in his life, we discussed that a few days ago.
“We have to make sure that he takes the right steps, and he needs to be able to cope with it, too, because it’s happening very, very fast, and we all need to be aware of that.
“Let’s encourage him to keep going that way, but let’s protect him as well.”
This was another positive evening for Arsenal’s academy, with 17-year-old Harriman-Annous playing a big part in the Gunners’ second goal and 19-year-old Myles Lewis-Skelly combining with fellow academy graduate Nwaneri for the opener.
“That’s what it is and I’m very happy with both of them (Harriman-Annous and Dowman) today,” Arteta added.
“Myles as well, Ethan scoring a goal, Bukayo [Saka] scoring a goal – so two academy graduates taking us to the quarter-finals.
“Again, it was a special emotional evening.”
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