Arteta on Dowman red card after Arsenal's cup exit

"It was something we talked about before the match," Mikel Arteta said after Max Dowman's red card in Fleetwood Town vs Arsenal. The Arsenal teenager is 16, and he was dismissed for violent conduct in the 85th minute after kicking out at Harrison Neal. Arteta also said he had not yet seen enough to judge the incident properly.

Arteta's warning before kick-off

Arteta said the issue had already been discussed before the game, and his wider point was about control as much as discipline. He told A Bola: "I didn't see it on the cameras. You can't really tell what happens. The decision was made by the referee and that's it. It's hard to see from the images, so I'd rather review it calmly and then assess the situation."

He added to standard.co.uk: "When we prepared the context of the match, we were very clear about what to expect and the things we had to control emotionally. Yes, we are going to learn from everything. And, even with ten men, we had three big chances to score the second goal."

Arsenal's chances after the dismissal

The red card did not end the game there. Arsenal exited the Carabao Cup on penalties after a 1-1 draw with Fleetwood Town, and Arteta argued that the bigger problem was not attitude but the finishing that left the tie open.

"I cannot fault at all the attitude of the players," he said. "We insisted so much, we have so much of the ball, so many chances, so many shots, and if you want the margins to be bigger than going to the penalties, obviously, you need to capitalize on that. And we didn't. And football is about that."

That part of the night is harder to ignore. Arsenal recorded 19 off-target shots, while Kai Havertz had seven attempts and still missed three or four superb chances. Max Dowman also had three shots before his dismissal, so the teenager was involved in the attack before the match turned on discipline and finishing rather than a lack of intent.

Arteta will not rush to make the red card into a definitive verdict, and that is probably the right approach. The footage review matters more than the first reaction, but Arsenal's exit also leaves a simple fact behind: they were out of the Carabao Cup after a draw with Fleetwood Town and a penalty defeat.