Max Dowman, 16, may have provided crowning moment in Arsenal’s title charge
Max Dowman, at 16 years and 73 days, became the youngest scorer in Premier League history on a remarkable day for the youngster and Arsenal at the Emirates
In Mikel Arteta’s moment of absolute need, he turned to a 16-year-old kid who is trying to balance the Premier League title race with the stresses and strains of completing his GCSEs. What followed was not only vindication for the Arsenalmanager, but also an individual performance that could ultimately go down in this club’s storied history.
If Arsenal go on to win the Premier League title, they will look back on this evening as the most pivotal of occasions. A night when their brains were tested as much as their bodies, and when Max Dowman, a boy from the academy, found the answers that established internationals could not.
Bottle? All Arsenal will care about is bottling this feeling, this electricity of youth and the sense of adventure that Dowman brought to the Emirates Stadium. You can call it momentum, magic or whatever you want. Whatever the word, the effect is wonderfully intoxicating for all of an Arsenal persuasion. The explosion of joy that followed Dowman’s goal was comparable to the greatest moments in the 20-year history of this arena.
Already the youngest ever player in the Champions League, Dowman is now the youngest ever scorer in the Premier League. His goal was not just any goal, either. It was magnificent. Dowman received the ball deep in his own half and beat two opponents before striding towards the empty net, vacated by Jordan Pickford as the Everton goalkeeper sought an equaliser.
Some players might have shot from distance. Others might have passed to a team-mate. Dowman’s chosen route towards goal was the trickiest but he made it look laughably straightforward. The winger skipped around Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall with such ease that he might as well have been back on the academy pitches again, playing against kids far below his level.
“For me, it felt like 45 seconds,” said a beaming Arteta. “It was really special, because you could sense that it was building up and you could see there’s no goalie there. It is going to happen, it’s going to happen, and everybody was lifting. It was incredible. So loud, so energetic. What a moment.
“It’s not only the goal that he scored. I think he changed the game. Every time he got the ball, he made things happen. It looked like we were more of a threat. To do that at that age, in this context, with this pressure, it is just not normal.”
When Dowman came onto the pitch after 74 minutes, the game was goalless and the pressure on Arsenal had reached almost intolerable levels. Fifteen minutes later, he curled in the cross that led to Viktor Gyokeres scoring from close range. Eight minutes after that, he set off on the run that ended in his own personal moment of history.
What was Arteta’s message to Dowman, in those crucial seconds before the teenager entered the pitch? “Go and do your thing and win us the game,” said the Arsenal manager. “I had a gut feeling that it was a moment for him. He just plays so naturally.”
It speaks volumes of Arteta’s faith in Dowman, and indeed in his own gut, that he turned to the young winger instead of Gabriel Jesus, an unused substitute. Arteta also removed Noni Madueke and Kai Havertz, more than £100m worth of attacking talent, from the game. It was Dowman, rather than these senior stars, who embraced the magnitude of the occasion.
He looks a talented boy, that’s for sure,” was the understated reaction from David Moyes, the Everton manager.
It had all been made so difficult by a superbly combative and niggly defensive showing by the visitors. Moyes knows how to set up a team for these sorts of matches and his players were disciplined throughout. On another day they might even have won it, given the quality of the chances they created in the first half.
Dwight McNeil hit the post and had another shot blocked, in remarkable circumstances, by Riccardo Calafiori’s “scorpion” block. Iliman Ndiaye was a threat on the break.
For much of the game Arsenal had dominated the territory and the possession, but without creating enough clear-cut opportunities.
Havertz might have had a first-half penalty, when he was seemingly tripped by Michael Keane, while Bukayo Saka and Madueke both had shots at goal.
Arsenal continued to push after the break but it became a night of agony and anguish. North London reeked of desperation throughout the second half. Arteta, bouncing around the touchline, ripped off his jacket as the nervous energy surged through his body. His players ran and ran, passed and passed, shot and shot.
When the breakthrough finally came, Arsenal were grateful not only to Dowman and Gyokeres but also to Pickford. The England goalkeeper flapped at Dowman’s cross, pushing it onto the body of Piero Hincapié. Gyokeres then applied the tap-in, scoring the sort of goal he was signed to score.
On another night, the story would have been all about Gyokeres. On this occasion, though, everyone in the Emirates Stadium knew which man (or, indeed, which boy) had made the difference.
[Source: Daily Telegraph]
