Arsene Wenger has already shown Mikel Arteta how to avoid Max Dowman mistake

Max Dowman continues to make headlines after scoring his first senior Arsenal goal and Mikel Arteta can learn from Arsene Wenger's past mistakes

Mikel Arteta can learn from Arsene Wenger's errors in handling a budding Theo Walcott as he nurtures Max Dowman at Arsenal. The 16-year-old became the Premier League's youngest-ever goal scorer at the weekend.

The Gunners' Hale End academy appears to have produced another gem in Dowman, who made his senior debut in 2025 and impressed earlier this month in an FA Cup tie against Mansfield Town.

Arteta showed faith in the teenager on Saturday and brought him on as Arsenal chased the game versus Everton. Dowman didn't disappoint, with his 89th-minute cross causing chaos and leading to Viktor Gyokeres' opener. The cherry on the cake came in added time when he wrote his name into the history books as the top-flight's youngest scorer.

An inevitable buzz now surrounds Dowman in a situation not dissimilar to Walcott's emergence in 2006. Walcott was called up to the England squad for that year's World Cup on the back of his performances, though Arteta can learn from this scenario and ground Dowman.

FOLLOW OUR ARSENAL FB PAGE! Latest Gunners news, analysis and much more via our dedicated Facebook page

Having only signed for Arsenal in January 2006, a young Walcott, aged 17, was included in Sven-Goran Eriksson's Three Lions squad for the World Cup in Germany that summer after showing immense promise.

Walcott didn't see any playing time but has since admitted the call-up was a mistake and attention engulfed him. He said on The Overlap in 2023: "Honestly, as a 17-year-old going to the World Cup for me, I should never have gone, I've said this.

"Essentially, you try telling a 17-year-old to go and say they're not going to the World Cup for England, I wasn't going to do that. I hadn't asked for it but the manager saw something in me and in the end I didn't play."

Asked if England or Wenger should have done more to shield him at such a young age, Walcott said: "Probably both I'd say, because I'd already played up an age for England, so I was already in the books of 'Keep an eye on this kid,' I suppose.

"I probably could've been protected in that sense. I knew Sven was coming into training and I didn't think anything of it. Obviously, you've got Ashley [Cole] and Sol [Campbell].

"Then I remember Arsene saying, 'He's going to watch you' and I'm like ok, alright, just thinking for the future type of thing. Then suddenly, that happened, and my whole life changed."

On the back of the 2-0 Everton win on Saturday, Arteta was asked whether Dowman could make a late foray into Thomas Tuchel's squad for this year's World Cup. He simply replied: "I don't know. I haven't heard that. But let's go game by game, please."

Evidently, Wenger's failure to protect Walcott as a teenager was an error. Arteta can take a warning from this and has already made inroads into avoiding a similar issue with Dowman as he discourages any England chatter, which, it appears, he'd be right to do.