Arsenal stars gave 15-year-old sensation Max Dowman ‘a kick’ when he started nutmegging senior players on the training pitch, Mikel Arteta has revealed.
Dowman is the latest special talent to emerge from the Hale End production line, dazzling supporters with his thrilling cameo appearances during the club’s pre-season tour of Asia.
He made his competitive debut in the 5-0 victory over Leeds United in August aged just 15 years and 234 days, also coming off the bench late on against Liverpool.
Dowman has returned to Under-21 duty last weekend but could be involved in the first-team again this week as Arsenal take on Port Vale in the Carabao Cup on Wednesday.
Managing their precocious young talent is a top priority for Arteta and his staff with Dowman also still in full-time education.
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Having trained with the first-team since he was 14, there have been moments when Dowman has left his older teammates red-faced with a bit of sublime skill.
The youngster did occasionally get some rough treatment in those moments with the entire squad now taking responsibility to ‘look after’ the young star.
Asked how Arsenal’s older players reacted to getting nutmegged by Dowman, Arteta told a press conference: ‘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 to the next one.
‘You can really take it personally, of 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.
‘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.’
Dowman will hope to get more minutes on Wednesday night with Noni Madueke’s absence opening up space in the squad.
The former Chelsea winger is facing a spell out with a knee problem with Bukayo Saka only just making his return from a hamstring problem at the weekend.
