Match report – Player ratings – Arteta reaction – Video Arsenal are through the Carabao Cup fourth round after a 4-2 win over Ipswich at Portman Road last night. Mikel Arteta rang the changes, with only Gabriel from Saturday’s starting XI in the team. With no Ben White, Cristhian Mosquera or Piero Hincapie, defensive options were limited, hence the Brazilian time-sharing the game at centre-half with Marli Salmon alongside him, and Martin Zubimendi and Myles Lewis-Skelly as full-backs. There was also a start for Max Dowman in midfield, and just 7 minutes in and the 16 year old made his mark. Picking up the ball in midfield, he drove towards their box with Eberechi Eze outside him. That looked like the obvious pass, but Dowman produced a shimmy – coupled with superb close control – that sent the defender the wrong way, opening up the space for him to take it and finish with his right foot. It was a brilliant goal, demonstrating not only the quality this young man has, but the confidence to decide against taking the safer option of playing a pass to a more senior colleague. The second goal came after Dowman and Bruno Guimaraes applied a snappy high press as Ipswich tried to play it out from the back, Mikel Merino dinked a ball over the defence for Noni Madueke who took a touch and hit a shot into the bottom corner for 2-0. Another really nice finish, and overall I thought it was an encouraging display from him down the right. I feel like he could have had an assist to his name after putting in a good low cross into the middle, but Viktor Gyokeres didn’t make the run in front of his marker that he should have for what would have been a very presentable close range chance. At half-time, without too much Ipswich threat in that first period, the manager made a change with Ezri Konsa replacing Gabriel. That seemed sensible, we’re low on defensive numbers right now, so ensuring we at least try and minimise risk to key players was the right thing to do. Just two minutes in and we extended the lead, Dowman getting his second goal of the night after Madueke and Zubimendi combined well, the pass through to the goalscorer hit a hand on the way through, but his finish was calm and assured to make it 3-0. Bruno got in on the assist-making on the hour mark, feeding Merino (whose name should not be as difficult for professional football commentators to get right as it seems to be for some of them), and the Spaniard curled a really nice shot in off the post to make it 4-0. We know he’s got the quality in those areas to make things happen, and if you give him a sight of goal like that he’s more than capable of punishing you. 18 year old Theo Julienne then came on in place of Guimaraes, which meant he went to right-back and Zubimendi shifted into midfield. Ipswich made changes themselves and got one back for 4-1, and late on former Gunner Chuba Akpom added a second goal for the home side but it was little more than a consolation, and overall there’s no doubt we deserved the win against, it’s fair to say, a much changed Ipswich side whose priority this season is staying in the Premier League. Afterwards, Mikel Arteta said: I’m really pleased with a lot of things that we’ve done tonight. The way we attacked the game, how dominant, fluent and aggressive we were right from the beginning to try to influence the results. We scored two very early goals that gave us a great platform for the game, and individually some big performances as well. Some debuts tonight, which is great to see as well. So, we take a lot of positives from the night. And there was obviously focus on Max Dowman after his two goals: A joy to have him, Marli as well, 16-years-old, to play at the level with the physicality that they have to be able to handle that level, it’s remarkable. And Max, yeah, it’s inevitable to talk about him when he scores and he creates the moments that he has created tonight – it’s normal. He also added a note of caution, given the fact he’s still only 16, and while the talent and potential is obvious to everyone, there’s some measure of caution needed about how and when he’s used this season: What we have to do is look after him. He’s 16 years old, you don’t see that in this league. In other leagues in Europe, that’s a totally different context. But in this league, with the demands that the league, the players and everything puts on you, we really need to make sure every time we throw him in, he’s in the right context with the right preparation, and that’s what we are trying to do. We’re going to make sure that when we just throw him there, he’s ready to handle that at every level, and it’s not just that he can run past somebody. There’s a lot more things that we need to look after him, but he will dictate that in terms of how he behaves every single day and how many reasons he gives to play because he’s part of our squad, like anybody else, no different. All of that makes sense. Just try and think what you were doing at 16, how mentally and physically ready you might have been for playing for this Arsenal team right now. He’s an incredible talent, and nights like last night will obviously stand him in good stead, but it’d be a big step for a player of his age to be playing U21 football, let alone first team, so I think we have to trust the manager and his staff when it comes to his development. It’s hard not to be excited though. Meanwhile, grizzled veteran Marli Salmon, now an over the hill 17 years of age, had a really fine performance at centre-half. I’ve often said it’s easier for a young attacker than a young defender. For the former, a mistake means you don’t take a chance or you lose the ball high up the pitch; for the latter it can cost your team a goal, and that’s obviously viewed as more damaging, even if people can understand the difficulties of being that young. There were a couple of moments where I appreciated the experience of Gabriel in particular to guide him through, but he should be very pleased with what he produced last night. It was, to my mind, as encouraging a performance as Max, in the context of their respective positions. It’s also worth noting that by the time the game finished, we had a 16 year old, a 17 year old, two 18 year olds (Julienne and late sub Ife Ibrahim), and a 19 year old (Myles), on the pitch. There’s no question that Mikel Arteta is a manager who values experience and who prefers to default to that if he can, but he’s also more than willing to play young players who he feels are at the level. Both Max and Ethan Nwaneri made their debuts at 15, and with our connection as fans to Hale End, it’s always great to see players who have come through the Academy get the nod at first team level. So, a solid night’s work away from home again. Let’s hope the absence of Timber was down to an abundance of caution, while the fact Hincapie wasn’t in the squad at all is a bit of a worry as this is a game he definitely would have started otherwise. There’s one more game before we head into an extended Interlull, and hopefully that break will allow us to get some of the absentees fit again. Right, I’ll leave it there for this morning. More here tomorrow, and we’ll have a Thursday Arsecast for you too, chatting about the Ipswich game, and much more besides. For now, have a good one folks. 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