Mikel Arteta has told 16-year-old Max Dowman ‘we are not in Disneyland’ as he insists his age does not give him a free pass following his red card against Fleetwood.
Dowman was sent off in the 86th minute of Arsenal’s shock Carabao Cup defeat by Fleetwood on Tuesday after kicking out in retaliation to a challenge by Harrison Neal.
It was the second time he has been sent off this this month, having also seen red while representing England’s Under-19s.
After the club’s appeal was rejected by the FA, Dowman will now miss Arsenal’s Premier League matches against Liverpool, Hull City and Newcastle.
As the teenager left the field, manager Mikel Arteta gave him a scathing look and uttered a few words to the attacker, understood to be: ‘Get to the changing room, Max.’
And on Friday he suggested Dowman should have kept his cool under provocation.
Mikel Arteta has words with Max Dowman after his red card against Fleetwood
Arteta said: ‘I haven’t seen the reaction to my reaction. But you have to understand the context, the relationship that I have with him and what we discussed just before we went out.
‘You want to always have the best reaction, the beautiful one. But do you want to see the reaction of his team-mates when they have to play with the 10 men, you want to see that? What do you expect?
‘I don’t know. Or the England (Under 16) ones, they are his age, 16, the same. What is their reaction?
‘When I don’t win, you know what the reaction is? I’m p***** off, big time, you know.’
‘We have to be ready for that, this is the environment and this is the reality. Otherwise we are in Disneyland. We are not in Disneyland, we are in the Premier League at this level.
‘We look after him so much that you cannot imagine, and at the same time we are going to be demanding that anybody continues to earn the right to play. Otherwise what are the rest of the boys going to tell me? It needs to be fair, that’s all.’
Arteta revealed he had spoken with Dowman about the incident.
‘I had a talk with him yesterday,’ he said. No issue at all. I’ve done it, so I try to prevent that. That’s why I’m so protective of these things, and especially with young players, because we have made those mistakes. And you know how much you can get punished and how much it can change what happens next.’
