\n<\/p>\n
Max Dowman returned to action on Friday, playing 45 minutes for Arsenal\u2019s Under-21 team against Ipswich Town.<\/p>\n
The 16-year-old, who has been sidelined since December with an ankle injury, was named in the starting XI and withdrawn at half-time in what appeared to be a pre-planned substitution.<\/p>\n
Arsenal manager Mike Arteta, speaking at a press conference on Friday to preview the Premier League clash with Chelsea, confirmed that Dowman would play \u201csome minutes\u201d against Ipswich.<\/p>\n
Arteta\u2019s assistant Albert Stuivenberg was at Borehamwood\u2019s Meadow Park to watch Dowman in person. A strong Under-21 side also featured Marni Salmon and Andre Harriman-Anous, as well as January signings Jaden Dixon and Evan Mooney.<\/p>\n
Arsenal trailed at half-time, however, thanks to an outstanding individual goal from Ipswich\u2019s 21-year-old Tudor Mendel-Idowu and ultimately fell to a 1-0 defeat.<\/p>\n
Dowman has set records for Arsenal this season, becoming the club\u2019s youngest starter in their Carabao Cup win over Brighton, as well as becoming the youngest player in Champions League history aged 15 years and 308 days.<\/p>\n
Speaking in January after signed his pre-contract agreement with Arsenal, manager Arteta said Dowman was one of the best talents he\u2019s seen play at such a precocious age.<\/p>\n
\u201cCertainly one of the best,\u201c said Arteta. \u201dWhat he\u2019s done with us at the age of 15 \u2014 me personally, I haven\u2019t seen it before. Only with a guy who used to play in Barcelona, but maybe not even that.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe certainly has, not only that, he has a certain charisma as well and personality that he doesn\u2019t get overwhelmed, whether it\u2019s by the situation, or the stadium or the opposition, and that\u2019s a huge quality to have.\u201d<\/p>\n
Wearing the number 10 shirt, Dowman was subject to intense pressure every time he received the ball. He appeared to come through the game without injury though, which will have been Arsenal\u2019s absolute priority.<\/p>\n
One eye-catching run late in the half ended in a low shot which went just past the post.<\/p>\n
With Arsenal\u2019s season approaching the business end, and the squad generally in good health, Dowman\u2019s opportunities are likely to be relatively limited between now and the end of the season.<\/p>\n
If his rehabilitation progresses well, Arteta may consider him for inclusion in the squad for FA Cup tie against Mansfield Town on March 7.<\/p>\n
Regardless of how much he features between now and the end of the campaign, it has been a remarkable breakout year for one so young.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Max Dowman returned to action on Friday, playing 45 minutes for Arsenal\u2019s Under-21 team against Ipswich Town. The 16-year-old, who has been sidelined since December with an ankle injury, was … <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":352,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-351","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sport"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipsport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/351","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipsport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipsport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipsport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipsport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=351"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ipsport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/351\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipsport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/352"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipsport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=351"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipsport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=351"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipsport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=351"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}