Seven minutes into Arsenal’s Carabao Cup third round tie at Portman Road, Max Dowman picked the ball up in the middle of the pitch, drove at Ipswich Town’s defence and shifted the ball past Cedric Kipre before finishing low into the bottom corner. Forty minutes into the second half he did it again, turning home a second from close range. By full time Arsenal had won 4-2, with Noni Madueke and Mikel Merino also on the scoresheet either side of a spirited Ipswich response through Anis Mehmeti and Chuba Akpom. The result sent Arsenal into the fourth round without much fuss. The story of the night belonged to a 16 year old who has spent the best part of a year rewriting Arsenal’s record books.
Dowman’s brace made him the second youngest player to score for a Premier League club in League Cup history, behind only Cesc Fabregas, who was 16 years and 212 days old when he scored against Wolverhampton Wanderers in 2003. Dowman, born on 31 December 2009, was 16 years and 258 days old at Portman Road, edging out Jack Wilshere, who managed the same feat at 16 years and 266 days against Sheffield United in 2008. All three names on that particular list wear the same shirt, a detail Arsenal’s academy staff will enjoy pointing to for years to come.
A Rooney Comparison That Writes Itself
The wider comparison drawn on the night was with Wayne Rooney, who scored twice for Everton against Wrexham in the League Cup back in October 2002 at the same age. Until this week, Rooney was the only 16 year old to have scored twice in a match for a Premier League club in any competition. Dowman is now the only other name on that list, a comparison that will follow him for the rest of his career whether he likes it or not. Rooney himself was asked about it on BBC’s The Wayne Rooney Show and struck a generous tone. “Let him enjoy it and go and express himself,” he said, adding that while Arsenal’s dressing room would keep him grounded, “you have to enjoy it as well.” Rooney knows the territory better than most, having scored against Arsenal himself as a 16 year old for Everton.
Arteta’s Balancing Act
For Mikel Arteta, the challenge is less about celebrating the moment and more about managing what comes next. Arsenal’s manager has made no secret of wanting to protect Dowman from being rushed, even as the teenager keeps forcing his hand. “A joy to have him,” Arteta said after the win, before adding the caveat that has followed nearly every one of Dowman’s big performances this season. “If he does what he does on the pitch it’s not easy, I understand. But what we have to do is look after him. He’s 16 years old.” Arteta was equally quick to point to the parts of Dowman’s game still catching up with his talent, referencing Ipswich’s first goal. “He loses his man. And that’s the things that we need to continue to reiterate with him.” The message from Arteta has been consistent since Dowman broke into the squad: the talent is not in question, the timing of his exposure is everything. “We’re going to make sure that when we just throw him there, he’s ready to handle that at every level,” he said. “It’s not just that he can run past somebody.”
A Season Already Full of Milestones
Portman Road was simply the latest entry on a list that has grown startlingly long for a player who only made his senior debut in August last year. Dowman came off the bench against Leeds United that month at 15 years and 235 days old. By late October he was the youngest player ever to start a game for Arsenal in the League Cup, and a week later he became the youngest player in Champions League history, appearing against Slavia Prague at 15 years and 308 days old. In March this year he became the youngest goalscorer in Premier League history with a goal against Everton, and by the end of last season he had become the youngest player to start a Premier League match and the youngest to win a Premier League title, all before his seventeenth birthday. Ipswich was not even his first senior brace, but it was his most eye catching, arriving in a competition Arsenal have targeted seriously this season after last term’s final defeat to Manchester City.
What happens next for Dowman is exactly the question Arteta is trying to answer carefully rather than quickly. Wholesale changes across the team, nine of them from Arsenal’s regular Premier League side, gave him the platform at Portman Road, and performances like this will only increase the calls for more minutes in matches that matter more. Arsenal’s history with young forwards, from Fabregas to Wilshere to Bukayo Saka, suggests the club knows how to get this right when it is patient. Judging by the pace of Dowman’s rise so far, patience might turn out to be the hardest part of the whole project.
There is also a lesson here for anyone tempted to write Ipswich off as makeweights in this competition. Gary O’Neil’s side pushed Arsenal all the way in the closing stages, with Mehmeti and Akpom turning a comfortable scoreline into a nervy final ten minutes, and there was enough in their performance to suggest their Premier League return will not be a one season stay if they keep playing with that sort of front foot ambition against sides many places above them.
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