A furious Mikel Arteta appeared to scold Max Dowman after the 16-year-old was sent off in the latter stages of Arsenal‘s shock Carabao Cup defeat against Fleetwood Town.
The teenage winger was dismissed in the closing stages of the fourth round tie after reacting to a challenge from Harrison Neal.
Neal had slid into a challenge on Dowman, with the Arsenal star responding by appearing to try to kick out at the Fleetwood player, sparking a melee.
Dowman was shown a straight red card for the act, with Arsenal forced to play out the closing stages with 10-men.
As Dowman made his way off the pitch, Arteta was seen walking towards Dowman and appeared to be seen sternly addressing the youngster.
Former Arsenal star Paul Merson, speaking on Sky Sports, expressed his concerns over the incident at full-time.
Mikel Arteta appeared to scold Max Dowman after his red card in their shock cup defeat to Fleetwood Town
Dowman had reacted to a strong challenge from Harrison Neal and appeared to lash out
Dowman was shown a straight red card following the incident in the closing stages of the match
‘This didn’t look good to me at all,’ Merson said.
‘For me, I didn’t like that.’
The straight red card came on a dismal night for Arsenal as the reigning English champions stunningly crashed out of the competition on penalties to their League Two opponents.
Arsenal had fallen behind in the first half to Aaron Loupalo-Bi, before Viktor Gyokeres drew Arteta’s side level in the second half.
Bruno Guimaraes crucially missed from the spot in the shootout as Fleetwood scored all five of their penalties to remarkably book their place in the quarter-finals.
