Mikel Arteta hails Max Dowman’s ‘special’ history-making performance for Arsenal

Mikel Arteta lauded Max Dowman’s “special” performance as the 15-year-old rewrote history by becoming Arsenal’s youngest-ever starter in his side’s Carabao Cup victory against Brighton.

Ethan Nwaneri and Bukayo Saka – who replaced Dowman with 20 minutes remaining – struck in the second half as Arsenal secured a 2-0 win at the Emirates to book their place in the fifth round and a home tie against Crystal Palace.

But it was Dowman, still two months and two days shy of his 16th birthday, who stole the show and was afforded a standing ovation as he departed the pitch.

“A tiny smile, that’s what you get with him,” said Arteta when asked how Dowman reacted when he told him 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.”

Asked if the highly-rated teenager – who previously came off the bench in the league against Leeds and Liverpool and the last round of this competition at Port Vale – would now be desperate for more starts, Arteta added: “For sure, if you ask him.

“That’s what we have to manage and not only that, there’s a lot of things that are new in his life.

“We have to make sure that he takes the right steps and he needs 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.”

Dowman was among 10 changes made by