Mikel Arteta has admitted the Arsenal squad have handed some tough treatment out to teenager Max Dowman.
Dowman has been introduced to the Arsenal first team this season and became second youngest player in the Premier League history, at 15 years and 235 days, in August.
The Hale End graduate is regarded as one of English football’s brightest talents and is set to be included in the squad for tonight’s Carabao Cup tie against Port Vale.
15-year-old Max Dowman has become the youngest ever goalscorer for Arsenal U21s in #PL2 👏
The future is bright 💫 pic.twitter.com/NV8rhUHejp
— PL Youth (@PLYouth) September 20, 2025
Speaking ahead of that clash, Arteta said Arsenal need to manage Dowman carefully after his emergence into the senior set-up.
He said that includes Dowman dealing with some rough treatment from Arsenal’s experienced players, who were keen to ‘kick’ the 15-year-old after being embarrassed by his trickery in training.
“At the beginning, they responded immediately – kick him! That was the first one. And Max, to be fair, he was excellent, stood up and got into the next one.,” Arteta said.
“You can really take it personally, for someone who was 14 last year, at some point when he was doing certain things to players, and now 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 and just looking after us.
“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 given the best chance to exploit his talent, that’s all.”
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