Arsenal history-maker Max Dowman delights Mikel Arteta with his courage | OneFootball

Mikel Arteta praised the maturity of Champions League record-breaker Max Dowman as Arsenal cruised to a 3-0 victory over Slavia Prague.

Arteta brought Dowman on with the game effectively wrapped up, after Bukayo Saka scored a first-half penalty and makeshift forward Mikel Merino grabbed a second-half double.

Dowman’s appearance at the age of 15 years and 308 days broke the Champions League record previously set by Youssoufa Moukoko at Borussia Dortmund, and Arteta was again full of warm words for his young star.

“The first ball he gets, he takes people on. He starts to dribble and gets a foul. That is personality, that is courage,” the Gunners head coach said.

“You cannot teach that — you either have it or you don’t. It doesn’t matter what his passport says, you throw him in this context and he is able to adapt and have a good performance.”

Arteta also had praise for two-goal Merino.

The Spain international has adapted to playing as a centre-forward after first being called on to do so last season, and has again been thrown into the role following a concerning muscular injury suffered by Viktor Gyokeres at Burnley.

His second-half double helped Arsenal secure a fourth straight Champions League win and claim a club record-equalling eighth clean sheet in a row, plus a 10th consecutive victory in all competitions.

Arteta said: “It’s a joy to have (Mikel). It’s his versatility on the pitch, the things that he can do.

“It’s his mindset, it’s his leadership, it’s the way he is as a person. Today we are missing a lot of attacking players and we have to find different solutions.

“He comes in in the Champions League and scores two goals. You have to invent options. You can always have options if you invent them.”

Merino’s first was a classic striker’s goal, turning in a volley from Leandro Trossard’s left-wing cross.

“Obviously, Mikel hasn’t played there before in his career but we had a good experience of last season and the way he reacted and performed in that position,” Arteta added.

“My view was always he had really good timing and capacity to finish in the box, especially one touch.

“And then talking to him and making sure that he plays closer to the box and he identifies the opportunities, the timing, the way he needs to attack the spaces in relation to how they defend the box.”

Arsenal weathered some early pressure and went ahead when Bukayo Saka drilled home a 32nd-minute penalty following a referee review for a handball against Slavia captain Lukas Provod.

The run of clean sheets appeared in danger late on when the referee first gave Slavia a penalty after a challenge by Ben White on Provod, but overturned it after a VAR review.

Arteta said: “I wasn’t happy at all. I clearly saw that there could never be a penalty, but he made the decision.

“So, yes, well done because (the referee) was really honest. I think, obviously, it’s not a penalty. I want to maintain that (record) because I think that gives you something to defend as well and to merit.

“It would have been a bit sloppy to give it away that way.”