Arsenal are fighting to have Max Dowman available for Sunday’s trip to Liverpool.

The 16-year-old was sent off late on in Tuesday’s Carabao Cup defeat at Fleetwood Town for kicking out after a heavy challenge from Harrison Neal. Arsenal are appealing the decision, with the paperwork due by 1pm on Thursday, and they hope to have an answer before the weekend.

Dermot Gallagher doesn’t think Arsenal’s appeal will succeed

Speaking on Sky Sports, Dermot Gallagher was asked whether Arsenal’s appeal was likely to work. “I don’t actually,” he said. “I don’t because of the sheer nature of the aggressiveness of Dowman, and you can see the intent. He’s going to retaliate. So I think it will fail, to be honest.”

Gallagher believes the referee got the decision right. Plenty of fans have compared the incident with Cole Palmer, who was only booked for a similar offence against Tottenham at the weekend (he was later sent off for a second yellow card for a separate foul), but Gallagher sees a clear difference. “He knows what he’s doing,” he said of Dowman. “He almost brings his knee up, his thigh… almost in a kicking action. And that’s why I think it’s dissimilar to Palmer’s, in so much as Palmer uses almost his torso, his body.”

He did acknowledge that decisions like this fall into a grey area, admitting he had spoken to people who felt it wasn’t a red. “It’s an impossible question to answer,” he said. “Both of them have split opinions… It did [meet the threshold] for that referee on that day.”

Gallagher also felt Neal should have been punished for the challenge, which many Arsenal fans had pointed out. “Although he gets the ball, I think it’s a case where he gets the ball, but he’s too aggressive,” he said. “I think it’s a reckless challenge because he’s had little regard for the safety of Dowman… I think that’s enough for a free kick and a yellow card.”

That will be little consolation if the appeal fails. Dowman would then miss Arsenal’s Premier League games against Liverpool, Hull and Newcastle, although he would still be available for the Champions League ties against Slavia Prague and Borussia Dortmund.