{"id":4392,"date":"2026-10-30T17:01:01","date_gmt":"2026-10-30T17:01:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/2026\/10\/30\/arteta-warns-arsenal-teenager-dowman-businessday-ng\/"},"modified":"2026-10-30T17:01:01","modified_gmt":"2026-10-30T17:01:01","slug":"arteta-warns-arsenal-teenager-dowman-businessday-ng","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/2026\/10\/30\/arteta-warns-arsenal-teenager-dowman-businessday-ng\/","title":{"rendered":"Arteta warns Arsenal teenager Dowman \u2013 Businessday NG"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mikel Arteta has warned Arsenal teenager Max Dowman<\/a> that professional football is no \u201cDisneyland\u201d after the 16-year-old was sent off during the Gunners\u2019 shock Carabao Cup defeat to fourth-tier Fleetwood Town<\/a>.\n<\/p>\n

Arsenal were eliminated from the competition on Tuesday after losing 5-3 on penalties following a 1-1 draw in normal time. The defeat was compounded by Dowman\u2019s dismissal five minutes before the end of the match.\n<\/p>\n

The youngster was shown a red card in the 85th minute after reacting to a heavy challenge from Fleetwood midfielder Harrison Neal. He will now serve a three-match suspension after Arsenal lost their appeal against the dismissal.\n<\/p>\n

Read Also: Dowman handed three-match ban as Arsenal lose appeal<\/a>\n<\/p>\n

Arteta was visibly frustrated as Dowman walked off the pitch, and the Arsenal manager has now explained his reaction, saying he had warned the teenager before the match about handling provocation from opponents.<\/p>\n

Speaking at his press conference on Friday ahead of Arsenal\u2019s trip to Liverpool, Arteta defended his touchline response and said his relationship with Dowman informed how he addressed the incident.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cI haven\u2019t seen the reaction to my reaction, whether it is positive or negative. But you need to understand the context and the relationship that I have with him and what we discussed just before we went out,\u201d Arteta said.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can have another reaction. If you see the reaction of my father and my mother to me some days, you might say, \u2018I don\u2019t like the reaction.\u2019 For me, it was the best reaction to be who I am.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

The Spaniard also questioned whether Dowman\u2019s teammates would have welcomed his reaction had the teenager\u2019s dismissal left Arsenal playing with 10 men.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cYou want to see the reaction of his teammates when they have to play with 10? What do you expect? I don\u2019t know. \u201cThis is the environment, and this is the reality,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cOtherwise, we are in Disneyland. We are not in Disneyland; we are in the Premier League.\u201d
Arteta insisted that while Arsenal would continue to protect the young forward, they would also hold him to the same standards expected of every player at the club.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cWe look after him so much, but at the same time we\u2019re going to be demanding because he needs to earn the right to play, just like everybody else,\u201d he said.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is not the first time. It happened another time this month with the England Under-19s. And it will continue to happen because of the way he plays and the way he attracts opponents.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have to be able to tell each other what we think because he is 16, and we have to be very protective of him, but at the same time very straight with him about what we expect of him towards the team, individuals and the club.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

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Related News<\/h4>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tAnthony Nlebem<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Head of Sports at BusinessDay Media, a seasoned Digital Content Producer, and FIFA\/CAF Accredited Journalist with over a decade of sports reporting.Has a deep understanding of the Nigerian and global sports landscape and skills in delivering comprehensive and insightful sports content.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

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Businessday NG<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mikel Arteta has warned Arsenal teenager Max Dowman that professional football is no \u201cDisneyland\u201d after the 16-year-old was sent off during the Gunners\u2019 shock Carabao Cup defeat to fourth-tier Fleetwood… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4393,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4392","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4392","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4392"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4392\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4393"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4392"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4392"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4392"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}