SLAVIA PRAGUE vs ARSENAL: 16-year-old gem Max Dowman is pushing to start for the Gunners in Czechia at the ground where he wrote his name into the Champions League books last season
Mikel Arteta
Mikel Arteta is tipping Max Dowman to kick on following his Fleetwood red card
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Mikel Arteta has tipped "super positive" Max Dowman to bounce back from his Fleetwood blip - on the ground where he wrote his name into Champions League history.
Exactly one year ago to the day, Dowman became the youngest-ever player to feature in the competition aged 15 years and 308 days as Arsenal ruthlessly thrashed Slavia Prague 3-0 on their own patch.
Now the supremely-talented teenager is chomping at the bit for more minutes as he's serving a three-match domestic suspension which means he will not be able to play in the Premier League until November 29.
Arteta said of his hungry 16-year-old superstar: "That's a chapter that is gone. It's a moment of learning from all of us, and we move on. You learn from the not-so-good ones, you have to make sure you learn from the great ones as well. And he's been engaged.
"When you see the kids and today we spent some time together, talking about things in training, he's always super positive. When you're 16 you have a different way of looking at things and treating things, and that's what he brings to the team as well."
The top-flight champions, fresh off the back of last Sunday's landmark 1-0 victory over Liverpool at Anfield, are seeking to inflict more misery upon Slavia even though Arteta is likely to rotate heavily.
The Czechs have failed to win any of their past 22 Champions League matches and Dowman, should he be handed the chance to start in this competition for the first time ever, will be eyeing another stellar record.
If he was able to find the net, he would become the youngest goalscorer in Champions League history, surpassing Ansu Fati's record (17 years and 40 days).
Arteta would have no qualms throwing him in at the deep end following his Fleetwood dismissal as he talked up the pair's direct and honest father-son-like relationship.
He concluded: "I sit down with him and I just say, have you seen my press conference? What do you think? I'm just honest with him.
"It's public so we just have this kind of relationship. I think it's the way it should be and if he thinks something different he needs to tell me. That's the relationship we try to build with our players.
Max Dowman
Max Dowman was sent off for Arsenal at Fleetwood last week in the Carabao Cup(Image: Getty Images)
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"He's in a good place and that at the end is going to come out as a critical point in his career where he needs to learn about something that is going to be happening a few times every game for him.
"This is not something that's going to happen maybe once or twice a season, three or four times per game. Probably he's going to have to go through this kind of moment and he needs to master that because it's part of his game."
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