Арсеналын 16 настай авьяаслаг тоглогч Макс Дауман Карабао цомын тоглолтод хоёр гоол орууллаа

Max Dowman has had to be patient this season. On Tuesday, the 16-year-old Arsenal’s 4-2 Carabao Cup win at Ipswich Town.

There was a sense of deja vu in watching the teenager glide through the hosts’ backline for his first goal after just six minutes. Sprinting at full pelt, two touches with his right foot then a quick shift of his hips and touch inside with his stronger left put Cedric Kipre on all fours before he gave goalkeeper Christian Walton the eyes and reversed a right-footed finished into the near bottom corner.

So, where have we seen that before?

Well, the goal that made Dowman the Premier League’s youngest ever scorer against Everton in March, when a very similar shimmy floored Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall before the teenager sent the Emirates into pandemonium. He was similarly elusive on a much bumpier pitch at Mansfield Town in the FA Cup a few weeks prior, with Mikel Arteta calling the speed at which Dowman moved that day “incredible”.

“That’s something very natural for him, and he can deliver those actions effortlessly, I would say,” Arteta told reporters on Tuesday, when asked about what is becoming the trademark Dowman shimmy. “That’s his biggest quality. And defensively, his application, his capacity as well to sustain the actions, which is not easy.

“He’s 16 and he can create moments but consistently to go through the game, every phase with the demands that we put on him. To be able to do that is extremely difficult. And he’s coping better and better and better.”

It should be no surprise to see Dowman blend pace and grace, especially considering his exploits against seasoned pros in his breakout season last year. But that does not take away how impressive a moment this was, with his nutmegged finish into the far corner for his second goal an added bonus.

16 – Max Dowman is just the second 16-year-old to score two goals in a game for a Premier League side in all competitions, after Wayne Rooney in October 2002 for Everton against Wrexham, also in the League Cup.

Generations. pic.twitter.com/75XN6hgGeS

— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) September 15, 2026

While these were Dowman’s first senior minutes of the season, he was not coming in cold.

He played 90 minutes and assisted Arsenal Under-21s’ only goal in a 1-1 draw against Crystal Palace on August 22, and also played an hour during their 5-0 loss to Chelsea on September 12. These appearances should not be considered a ‘drop down’. It is natural, given there have been fewer midweek matches for the senior side at the start of the season: the same applied to Myles Lewis-Skelly at the start of his breakthrough 2024-25 season.

Arteta said that chances would come for Dowman after the first team beat Sunderland 2-0 the same evening as the Under-21s lost to Chelsea. Aside from the composure shown for both his goals, the Arsenal manager was impressed by Dowman’s overall game, too: it was his pressure on Walton that led to Noni Madueke’s goal to make it 2-0.

“He did the action where he regained the ball and wins it for the first goal, too,” Arteta added. “That’s the thing that we need to reiterate with him because he’s an unbelievable player.

“He really wants to do it (pressing). The more he plays, the more he trains with us, and the more ready he is physically to sustain that level, he will do it. And that will help in his attacking phase because he will force errors from the opponent, and then be in a really open situations to exploit his qualities.”

That appetite to be Arsenal’s ‘first defender’ continued into the second half, but another notable aspect of this performance was Dowman’s positioning over the course of the game.

Last season most of Dowman’s minutes came on the right wing. He came through the Arsenal academy as a midfielder, but chances for attacking players are easier to come by in less crowded areas out wide. He started twice centrally last season (away to Mansfield Town and Crystal Palace) and did so again at Portman Road.

Rather than being stuck in one pocket of space like Martin Odegaard and Ethan Nwaneri have done in previous seasons as Arsenal’s creative midfielders, he was given freedom to drift left so Bruno Guimaraes could find him more easily as well as having an early presence in and around the box. His move to the right wing came with the match petering out, but that did not stop him hurtling back to stop Jack Clarke from exploiting a counter-attack — an action met by chants of ‘Super Max Dowman’ from the away end.

“If he does what he does on the pitch, I understand it’s not easy (to quieten the hype),” Arteta added. “We have to look after him. He’s 16. You don’t see that in this league. In other leagues in Europe, that’s a totally different context. But with the demands that the (Premier League) has, we need to make sure every time we throw him in, he’s in the right context with the right preparation.

“You don’t (normally) see players (of Dowman’s age) with the capacity to handle just the physicality of the game. Not only that, but the demands that you have to put your body through in the week to be able to be in a good condition to compete, the amount of information, the challenges that you have to face. But he’s doing it really well.

“But he will dictate that in terms of how he behaves every single day and how many reasons he gives to play because he’s part of our squad.”

Dowman does not shirk the physical side of the game (Adrian Dennis/AFP via Getty Images)

What makes this situation unique is not just Dowman’s talent, but the lack of precedence for integrating a player so young into an elite first team.

Last season, at the ages of 15 and 16, Dowman made 13 first team appearances. Nwaneri made his Arsenal debut aged 15 years and 181 days, but did not break through until he was 17 in the 2024-25 season. Barcelona’s Lamine Yamal made his first-team debut at 15 years and 289 days in April 2023, but like Nwaneri, that was his only first-team appearance that season.

He did play 37 La Liga games as a 16-year-old the following season but, as Arteta says, the physicality of the leagues are very different. Cesc Fabregas, Jack Wilshere and Lionel Messi were given debuts for Arsenal and Barcelona aged 16, but their first real seasons of senior football were not until they were 17. Even Wayne Rooney’s breakthrough as a 16/17-year-old in the 2002-03 season, when he played 33 league games (14 starts), is hard to compare due to how physically advanced he was.

So, even when Dowman produces these ‘wow’ moments, it is important to allow him to develop at his own pace. That development could take another step later this week with the first England youth squads of the season set to be announced and a seemingly natural progression from the Under-19s.

Even if that does not happen, though, neither Arsenal or England have anything to worry about.