Mikel Arteta has insisted Arsenal starlet Max Dowman will get minutes this season but warned they must be earned ahead of Tuesday’s Carabao Cup fourth-round tie at Ipswich.
Arsenal finished as runners-up in the competition last season after they lost at Wembley to Manchester City and head to Suffolk for a tricky all Premier League tie eager to make it five victories from five for the new campaign.
The Gunners’ 16-year-old sensation Dowman has been an unused substitute on four occasions for Arsenal this season, most recently at Napoli last Wednesday, but has topped up his game time with a handful of runouts for the under-21s and featured in a 4-1 loss to Chelsea at the weekend.
Last season Dowman became the youngest player to start a Premier League fixture when he was given the nod at Crystal Palace and produced a memorable cameo against Everton where he scored his first professional goal in stunning fashion.
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However, with Arteta able to name Noni Madueke, Eberechi Eze and Viktor Gyokeres on the bench during a 2-0 win at Sunderland on Saturday, the Spaniard could not guarantee Dowman would start at Portman Road on Tuesday.
‘Well, I wish we could have him here (at Sunderland), but we have a limitation with the numbers we have,’ Arteta said in his latest remark about the Premier League rule of 20 players in a matchday squad.
‘Max will have his chance. He will have his minutes and he will have to earn them like anybody else.
‘You know the talent that we have, the players that we have there, we need to help him and find a way to make sure he continues to develop.’
Dowman will hope to earn a first senior appearance of the campaign at Ipswich and Arteta promised there would be no shortage of motivation from his Premier League champions.
While the Carabao Cup will presumably be low on the list of priorities for the north London club in comparison to defending their league crown and going for a maiden Champions League win, the 44-year-old knows his squad will relish the change to progress in the competition.
‘It’s the next game ahead and the next competition,’ Arteta said.
‘We will look at the players eyes, they will say they want to play, they want to win the game, they want to improve and they want to review the (Sunderland) game and they will be willing for me, because I know the boys.’
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Bukayo Saka scored late on in a hard-fought victory at Sunderland, which occurred after a narrow midweek win at Napoli and after a close battle with London rivals Chelsea.
Tuesday will be Arsenal’s third consecutive away match and Saka told the official club website: ‘It’s been a massive week for us.
‘There has been a lot of travelling. People don’t understand behind the scenes how it’s been, but I’m really happy with how we’ve managed this.
‘It’s amazing for us, so credit to the team, the staff, all of us. We need to keep going – it doesn’t stop.’