Mikel Arteta has put the Fleetwood defeat on his own shoulders and made sure Max Dowman knows it. In the embargoed section of Friday's press conference, Arteta said his message to Dowman was that he won't be judged for the red card and that the club backs him fully. Dowman "should not take any responsibility for that," Arteta said of the result. "That's mine, that's for sure." Arteta is right to carry it himself, because the red card was one moment and the result was a whole team's evening.
His answer on how Dowman copes with rough treatment was more revealing. Arteta said gifted players get targeted from the age of eight, and the difference with adults is the force of the challenges and the tricks they know that kids don't. Dowman is used to it even in training, he said, because "nobody wants to be dribbled [past] by a 15, 16-year-old." That treats the red card as something Dowman hasn't learned yet rather than a flaw in his temperament, and the first is something a coach can fix. Dowman serves the first game of his ban at Anfield today, where Arsenal are also without Bukayo Saka and William Saliba.
On Anfield itself, Arteta named the Bernabeu and Bayern Munich as proof that his players are used to hostile grounds. He was frank that sides "don't win very often" at places like Anfield, and said the next step after coming close there a few times "is within us". Arsenal haven't won a league game at Anfield since September 2012, a run of 13 visits. He's right not to sell today as a response to Fleetwood, because Arsenal would need the same level at Anfield whatever had happened in midweek. Going into today Arsenal are second on 21 points, level with leaders Manchester City, and a Liverpool win would cut Arsenal's lead over them to three points. Slavia Prague away follows on Wednesday.
In the academy, Arsenal's under-18s beat Brentford 6-4 on Saturday thanks to a Vincent Joseph hat-trick, their seventh straight win in all competitions.
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