\u201cIt was something that we discussed before the game,\u201d he said when asked about their touchline exchange. \u201cWe knew when we prepared the context of the match, we were very clear on the things to expect, the things that emotionally we have to dominate.\u201d<\/p>\n
Whether Dowman\u2019s reaction warranted a straight red card remains open to debate given there was minimal force when he lifted his right knee towards Neal. The referee, Michael Salisbury, could easily have decided to give both players a yellow and defused the situation, especially given Cole Palmer was booked for barging into Tottenham\u2019s Matheus Fernandes<\/a> off the ball on Saturday in what seemed a far more aggressive act. But, as Wayne Rooney and David Beckham infamously found to their cost while playing for England at the World Cup, acts of petulance are not usually tolerated by officials. Dowman was deemed to have overstepped the line.<\/p>\n It is a pressure Arteta has warned the record-breaking teenager would have to deal with as Dowman\u2019s reputation has grown. Only last month Dowman was sent off playing for England Under-19s against the USA after a poorly timed tackle that most present at the behind-closed-doors match deemed a harsh decision. He was said to have been on the receiving end of a host of strong challenges in that match. Last year, Arteta urged Dowman to follow the example of Bukayo Saka after revealing Dowman was fouled nine times in a the first half of an England Under\u201119s game against Spain.<\/p>\n Max Dowman is the centre of attention for Fleetwood\u2019s players after the teenager\u2019s reaction to a tackle from Harrison Neal. Photograph: Ryan Browne\/Shutterstock<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s going to happen, he\u2019s going to have to learn when to release the ball and when to attract his starting position,\u201d Arteta said. \u201cVery similar to Bukayo in the beginning as well. Those players are going to attract players, contact, attention and they have to be very smart about when you want that contact and when you don\u2019t want it, and what you have to do to avoid it.\u201d<\/p>\n Asked how Dowman tends to react, he said: \u201cHe just gets up \u2026 very rare! Sometimes I get surprised emotionally how cool he can be. I think it\u2019s about repetition. He\u2019s so used to it that now he knows to let the referee deal with it and my teammates probably to defend me, and I will carry on playing.\u201d<\/p>\n When the dust settles after a seismic defeat that ranks alongside Arsenal\u2019s League Cup upsets against Swindon, Birmingham and Bradford, Arteta may come to regret such a public admonishment of a 16-year-old. His actions were criticised by Paul Merson, who questioned whether Areta would \u201cdo it differently\u201d given another chance. But part of Arteta\u2019s frustration will be that Dowman took the bait. He also knows opponents will now target Dowman even more to see whether they can provoke a reaction.<\/p>\n skip past newsletter promotion<\/a>Free newsletter |Every weekday<\/p>\n Sign up to Football Daily<\/p>\n Kick off your evenings with the Guardian’s take on the world of football<\/p>\n after newsletter promotion<\/p>\n If Arsenal\u2019s appeal fails, Dowman\u2019s immediate punishment will be a three-match domestic suspension, causing him to miss Sunday\u2019s trip to Liverpool and games against Hull and Newcastle. The timing is far from helpful: Saka\u2019s thigh injury<\/a>, expected to keep him out for several weeks, had opened up the possibility of more game time in the Premier League and Noni Madueke did not travel to Fleetwood owing to an ankle issue.<\/p>\n Dowman burst on to the scene last year by becoming the first 15-year-old to play in the Champions League, then broke the Premier League\u2019s youngest goalscorer record against Everton in March, and this is the first major setback in his fledgling career.<\/p>\n He has been training with the first team since he was 14 and Arsenal have been extremely careful not to overexpose one of the most talked about players to emerge from their Hale End academy. Arteta resisted the temptation to give him many more minutes in the Premier League after Dowman scored twice against Ipswich in the previous round<\/a> of the Carabao Cup last month. The challenge will be how Dowman responds to the extra scrutiny \u2013 on and off the pitch \u2013 that is bound to come his way.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mikel Arteta\u2019s reaction said it all. As Max Dowman trudged towards the touchline after becoming the youngest player…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":816664,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[59,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-816663","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-gb","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/816663","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=816663"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/816663\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/816664"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=816663"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=816663"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=816663"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/1793205734_688_500.jpg\")
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