Mikel Arteta has left the door open on a January loan for , saying Arsenal will judge the 16-year-old’s progress every six months after his two-goal Carabao Cup display at Ipswich.
Dowman is still waiting for a minute this season. He answered that wait on Tuesday with a brace in a 4-2 third-round win at Portman Road, his first senior start of 2026-27 and a reminder of why Hale End rates him so highly.
Last season, became ’s youngest scorer and the youngest goalscorer in Premier League history, finding the net against Everton at 16 years and 73 days. The Ipswich double added another line to the record book. Only Wayne Rooney, as a 16-year-old for Everton in the League Cup in 2002, had previously scored twice in a competitive match for a Premier League club.
Mikel Arteta rotated in Suffolk. Dowman started and completed 90 minutes. Noni Madueke and Mikel Merino also scored. That is the tension now: the teenager can change a cup tie, but Arsenal’s league midfield is packed and first-team minutes are scarce.
The manager still wants around the senior group. He will not pretend the current setup is fixed forever.
“We will evaluate every six months where we are and what is the best thing for him to do and then make the right decision,” Arteta said. “It depends on a lot of factors. What he needs, and what the team needs as well, the availability we have in the squad, the minutes that he is playing and the qualities of those minutes.”
Arsenal shut out summer approaches so the youngster could do pre-season with the first team.
“We haven’t really listened to any of the possibilities because we were crystal clear that we wanted to have Max in the squad,” Arteta added. “We wanted him to be part of the pre-season and then start to see where we are from there. We have to be open, but now the focus is to be here and to impact the team.”
He later put the present plan in one sentence: “But now he is in a good place, let’s keep him here.”
Nothing is agreed. Mikel Arteta wants Max Dowman training with the group and taking the next chance when it comes. If Premier League minutes stay thin through December, the six-month review lands exactly when he becomes loan-eligible.
