Arsenal: Mikel Arteta hails 'huge talent' Max Dowman as wonderkid earns latest call-up to first-team training

Mikel Arteta has hailed Arsenal teenager Max Dowman as a “huge talent” after he once again trained with the first-team.

Dowman is just 15, but he has featured for Arsenal’s Under-21 side and taken part in first-team training.

The midfielder was with the first-team squad again on Tuesday afternoon ahead of Wednesday’s Champions League clash with Dinamo Zagreb.

Dowman will not be involved in the game at Emirates Stadium due to rules regarding players being of a certain age.

“Very impressive,” said Arteta, when asked about Dowman training with the first team. “At his age as well, some of the things he does in training are unbelievable.

“He’s a player with huge talent and we have a lot of belief that we can develop him to become one of our own. He’s doing very well so far.

“At the moment with all the legislation there are a lot of restrictions for your age, something that in other countries you don’t even mention.

“We’ll have to wait and see. He’s taking very fast steps because every time you put him in a different challenge, a different level, he overcomes that hurdle really quickly which is great.”

Arsenal will be hoping for a win against Dinamo as it will all but guarantee them a spot in the top eight of the Champions League.

That will see them skip the play-off round of the competition and head straight to the last 16, with Arsenal able to go away to Dubai for some warm-weather training next month when those games are.

“My thinking is let’s do what we have to do first which is always difficult because we are talking about the Champions League,” said Arteta. “If we manage to do that, we will have the best ideas on the table to make the right decision.”