I have knitted dozens of sweaters and never knit sleeves from the top down on a regular sweater. I would be afraid of not getting the stitches even and then there is the cap of the sleeve to consider so you couldn't pick up stitches all around the sleeve hole or there'd be no shoulder room.

What is the reason you want to do this? I think you'd be asking for trouble, but that's just my opinion. Maybe someone else can tell you different.

Unless you are a very confident knitter, this will be difficult. The only type of sleeve I would knit from the top down would be a sweater that had no armhole shaping at all.

I remember hearing that there is a way to do this using short rows which would shape the sleeve cap.