Max Dowman has been turning heads since making his breakthrough with Arsenal this season and the talented 15-year-old is not done making headlines yet after breaking another record on Wednesday night and with Mikel Arteta revealing the moment in training that first won him over.
The Gunners eased their way into round four of the Carabao Cup on Tuesday night, courtesy of a 2-0 win at League One Port Vale, with Eberechi Eze opening his account after eight minutes and Leandro Trossard wrapping up the win four minutes from time. And while Eze’s first goal for the club since a £60m return to Emirates brought joy to Arsenal, it was the appearance off the bench of Dowman in the 63rd minute that really had fans talking.
Entering the fray as a replacement for Bukayo Saka to great acclaim, it was the 2009-born star star’s third senior appearance for the Gunners after debuting against Leeds in the Premier League last month.
However, it was particularly notable in the moments before the game kicked off that illustrated Dowman’s likely involvement for Arsenal on the night.
Arteta opted to make nine changes to his starting line-up for the clash at Vale Park, with only Mikel Merino and William Saliba surviving from Sunday’s 1-1 draw at home to Manchester City.
Warming up before the game, it was noticed by Simon Collings of The Standard how Dowman was the only player among Arsenal’s substitutes to be training alongside Arsenal’s starters, with the rest of the subs all going through their warm-ups away from the main group.
And, after being introduced off the bench just after the hour mark, Dowman became the youngest player to ever appear for Arsenal in the League Cup, adding to his record of being the second youngest debutant in any competition for the north London side.
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Mikel Arteta reveals the moment he knew Max Dowman was ready for Arsenal
Having won a penalty on his Premier League debut in that 5-0 thrashing of Leeds, Dowman was unlucky not to claim his first senior assist when he played in Viktor Gyokeres on goal, though sadly the Swede could not convert.
While Arteta would not afford any of his players some preferential treatment, the manager clearly rates Dowman highly and knows he has another special young talent on his hands, meaning Arsenal fans can expect to see a lot more of a player who does not turn 16 until New Year’s Eve.
In the meantime, Arteta has come clean on the moment that he first knew Dowman was first-team ready for the Gunners, with the teenager showing his confidence and abilities by nut-megging a senior star in training at their London Colney complex.
“At the beginning, they responded immediately: ‘kick him!’” laughed Arteta. “That was the first one. And Max, to be fair, he was excellent. He stood up and got into the next one.
“You can really get an impression of someone who was 14 last year at some point when he was doing certain things to players. And now, yeah, everybody loves him. You just want to hug him, help him. He’s such a nice boy as well, and he’s very much liked by everybody here.
“It brings responsibility to look after somebody with that talent and make sure we just do what we have to do to make sure we’re giving him the best chance to exploit his talent. That’s all.”
Arteta insists he has no fears about Dowman’s ability to handle both the pressure and the fame that comes with being one of Arsenal’s brightest young talents.
“He’s super smart. His football IQ, the way he makes decisions, the way he moves, he does it naturally. It’s not too much, too close.
“It’s the competitive part of the game that we need to evolve with him, for him to understand the nature of the game. A lot of the things that he probably doesn’t pay too much attention to.
“That comes with minutes, with experience and by sharing a dressing room with these boys, they’re going to take him through a lot of stuff.
“We need to change his times, we need to change his education, probably his allocation and where he is with his family. His diet is different, his sleep patterns become different, the training load is different, the amount of information, and pressure exposure is different.
“So we have to manage a lot of factors. Into that, you add a lot of factors, you add a lot of minutes with very different teams as well. We need to be cautious and very, very careful.
“And that’s what we are trying to do in the best possible way, to find that balance, to keep Max as connected as possible with the first team, because he’s undoubtedly a player that can help the first team.”
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Meanwhile, Bournemouth will prepare for another battle to keep hold of a star man in 2026, TEAMtalk understands, with Arsenal named by sources as one of a few Premier League giants expected to reignite interest in the player.
Elsewhere, the Gunners are also being heavily linked with a Juventus star, according to the Italian media, as his national team manager and Fabio Capello compare the player to Italy legend Alessandro Del Piero.
And finally, Arteta is also being linked with a raid for a LaLiga-based star, whose career trajectory is similar to that of Arsenal skipper Martin Odegaard.
The player in question is rated in the €60m bracket, and it’s suggested that Andrea Berta has been making regular checks ahead of a possible 2026 swoop.