Mikel Arteta didn’t require the hysteria of the past week to know a thing or two about dubious reactions. Before we get onto his reaction to Max Dowman’s reaction, or the wider reaction to those reactions, we might revisit something that happened in November 2010.
That’s a long journey into the past, but the episode tells us a little about Arteta’s feelings for opponents who took liberties with his shins. The abbreviated version: violence would be returned with spectacular amounts of interest.
The longer telling revolves around a match between Arteta’s Everton and West Brom. To rewatch some of the footage now, we would say Gonzalo Jara brought it upon himself after 58 minutes, when in a mad passage he elbowed Leighton Baines and then barged shoulder-first into Steven Pienaar in the same scramble for a loose ball.
The defining act came next – Arteta stepped in to retrieve possession, but was clattered by Jara with one of those nasty scissor-motion tackles that could break the standing leg. If that sounds familiar, it’s because the challenge was near-identical to the lunge by Fleetwood Town’s Harrison Neal that provoked Dowman on Tuesday night.
But Arteta didn’t kick Jara, as Dowman did Neal. No, he stomped on his leg. Twice, actually. And with venom in each.
Arsenal’s 16-year-old Max Dowman gets an earful from his manager Mikel Arteta after the attacker was sent off on Tuesday night against Fleetwood
It was a frustrating night for Dowman who failed to live up to the excitement that surrounds him
Dowman was around 11 months old when this happened, so he’ll have no idea about all that. And besides, he’d probably be wise to avoid bringing it up. Aged 16, his sense of which battles to pick will be growing by the hour.
But Arteta was 28 when he turned vigilante against West Brom. And it wasn’t quite an isolated incident.
Seven months earlier, Morten Gamst Pedersen stepped on Arteta’s ankle in a game against Blackburn and the Spaniard didn’t like it. His response? He poked Pedersen in the eye and got a yellow.
So let’s offer a couple of conclusions at this point.
One is about Arteta – if he wishes to present himself as a poster boy for the zen state and self-control in football matches, then he might need to torch a few archives. The two yellow cards he has collected on the touchline this season would suggest his own journey to enlightenment is ongoing.
The second, more meaningful conclusion centres on the general theme that Dowman should have been preserved from a few chilly words and a colder stare from his manager.
In the aftermath of Arsenal’s defeat at Fleetwood, that peculiar stance has been propagated by Paul Merson and Gabby Agbonlahor, who were among the vocal cohort that bristled and recoiled at the sight of a young pro being sent to the dressing room without a cuddle. The backlash against Arteta almost sounded as if he had abdicated a duty of care. Of all the reactions in this saga, I found that the strangest.
When Arteta addressed the matter on Friday, his justification felt far closer to the mark: ‘You have to understand the context. We’re not in Disneyland, we’re in the Premier League.’
If Arteta wishes to present himself as a poster boy for the zen state and self-control in football matches, then he might wish to explain why he gets booked so often
Morten Gamst Pedersen is left reeling after a clash with Arteta in his Everton days. A few years later Arteta would poke Pedersen in the eye during a game at Ewood Park
A hypocrite on the subject of retaliations? Yes, we can go with that. Wrong in his handling of a young player who lost his cool? No. Definitely not.
At 16, we can say Dowman meets the legal definition of a child, and a bloody talented one at that, but he’s not a kid. Kids don’t get into the Arsenal first team. Kids wouldn’t survive the hothouse of a Premier League academy.
To understand why that might be, it is instructive to look back to an update on the Arsenal website from the summer. On June 4, as they do every year, they put out a few words to detail which of their Under 18s and Under 21s had not made the grade, which was a list that included the names of Harrison Dudziak, Seb Ferdinand, Cam’ron Ismail, Will Sweet and Josh Nichols.
As very good players, they were all in the Arsenal Under 19s squad in 2024, when Dowman, aged 14, became the youngest scorer in the UEFA Youth League’s history against Atalanta.
Of the starting XI that day, only four remain at Arsenal, and the point is this – Dowman has lived through the brutalities of that whittling process every summer and he will have been friends with those who had their dreams ended.
He will have been hardened by their traumas and solidified by knowing what it takes to stay standing in that world.
In short, when we attempt to imagine his position, and wonder how a cold shoulder might feel to a Gen Z child in the Arsenal team, we do so without the relevant context.
Because Dowman was never in Disneyland. A Premier League academy, even an excellent and caring one like that at Arsenal, will inevitably be more like a trip to the Hunger Games. Dowman has been there since he was five, so let’s assume it will take more than a mildly disappointed manager to hurt his feelings.
An incensed Dowman grapples with the Fleetwood Town players just before being sent off on Tuesday night
Dowman has not appeared flustered while he has passed milestones at breakneck speed in his short career so far
Based on everything I’ve heard privately and publicly about Dowman, his reaction to the reaction chain will go the other way. He’s a tremendously promising player and has a strong mind with good people behind him – it’s why he has not been flustered by any of the milestones he has passed at breakneck speed.
The wobbles, like the one at Fleetwood and shortly before that with England Under 19s, are few. But they are also useful, based on the truism that we all learn more when things go wrong. Viewed through that lens, Arteta’s worst possible response would be to indulge a blip or pretend it never happened. As an excellent manager, he hasn’t done that.
It is too early to say how far Dowman will go in his career. Likewise, we have no idea if he will shape into the kind of player who jabs a finger into the occasional eye or plants studs in any thighs. His reaction to Neal on Tuesday was certainly at the Disney-end of that scale.
But Dowman’s chances of succeeding will only be increased by learning where the margins exist. As with a few other facets of his game, he is ahead of the curve.
Does Mbappe really need China’s money?
A confession: I find the Kylian Mbappe ‘dictator’ memes funny. If you haven’t seen them, the gist is pretty simple – someone once decided that he carries himself like a dictator and subsequently imposed his head on the bodies and uniforms of a few notorious figures from history.
One of those was Chairman Mao Zedong and Mbappe’s own amusement at that fact is why he was forced onto the journey of 1,000 apologies this week.
In China, where it remains taboo to query Mao’s actions in any way, Mbappe has since had multiple sponsorships cancelled and a diplomatic row has swirled, with the upshot that a state-controlled broadcaster is now refusing to screen his matches.
The space here is too short to relitigate the deaths of millions of people under Mao’s reign, but Mbappe might have cause to wonder if he ever really needed Chinese money that badly.
Kylian Mbappe got himself into hot water this week by finding a Chairman Mao meme amusing. He has now had sponsorship deals in China canned
Welcome back, Sergio!
With a tail tucked between his legs, Sergio Garcia has announced his return to the DP World Tour after the demise of LIV.
Aside from saying he is ‘proud’ to be going back, Garcia adds that he is ‘excited’ to ‘strengthen personal relationships’ with those he left behind in 2022.
Based on multiple conversations I have had with leading players from the Tour, including a well-known name who has regularly described Garcia as a ‘total a**e’ since his defection, that excitement is remarkably one-sided.
