Paul Merson says there’s one thing he’s found ‘strange’ about Max Dowman at Arsenal recently

Max Dowman scored an incredible brace against Ipswich on Tuesday night.

The 16-year-old opened the scoring with a stunning solo goal after just seven minutes, sending Cedric Kipre for a hot dog before rifling home with his weaker foot. He followed that up with a composed curled finish into the bottom corner two minutes into the second half.

It was a man of the match performance that had Arsenal fans reaching for Messi comparisons and had Paul Merson running out of superlatives on Sky Sports.

“I don’t know what words you can use — I mean the lad is just unbelievable,” Merson said on Dowman. “You’ve got to take into consideration his age and everything. He just goes out on the pitch and he’s going past players as if they’re not there, like he’s playing in his own age group.

“He’s just got to be patient. He’s at an unbelievable Rolls Royce of a football club. He’s an unbelievable talent. He’s got 15 years at least at the top. He’s just got to be patient. And it’s hard, because he’ll think that he should be playing in the team now, but what a talent.”

When ‘the magic man’ was asked whether he would like to see Dowman play more, Merson expressed mild disappointment in Mikel Arteta for a decision he made during the Community Shield win over Manchester City last month.

“I was disappointed in the Community Shield, when Arsenal were 3-0 up. I was thinking ‘come on, let’s put Max Dowman on now. Let’s watch him now against the crème de la crème.’ And they didn’t put him on. And I just found that a bit strange.”

Arsenal were of course 3-0 up with the game completely wrapped up, and it was arguably a perfect opportunity to give their most exciting young talent a run out against an elite side with relatively low stakes.

In fairness to Arteta, his reasoning was probably justified. The Arsenal manager prioritised getting minutes in the tank for Bukayo Saka, Declan Rice, Eberechi Eze and Martin Zubimendi, who had all just returned from the World Cup. Getting those players up to speed was more important, particularly in hindsight given how well the Gunners have started the season.

But Tuesday night showed what Dowman is capable of, and it would have been great to see it against City. It will come.