There was nothing particularly inspiring about Arsenal’s performance against Everton on the evening of Saturday, March 14, at least not for the first 73 minutes, when the home side created chances without converting them and the Emirates Stadium descended into the kind of quiet frustration that has preceded dropped points before.
Then Mikel Arteta sent on Max Dowman, and within 16 minutes of football the 16-year-old had provided the cross that led to Viktor Gyokeres scoring in the 89th minute, sprinted 50 yards with the ball, sent Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall sliding nowhere near him, and rolled into an empty net to become the youngest goalscorer in Premier League history at 16 years and 73 days old.
Arteta, asked what he said to Dowman before he walked onto the pitch, kept it brief in the press conference afterward: “Go and do your thing and win us the game.”
The instruction was heeded with a directness that suggested the teenager either had not absorbed the weight of the occasion or, more accurately, simply did not feel it the way older players might.
“I had a gut feeling that it was a moment for him,” Arteta said afterward. “Probably because he doesn’t seem to be fazed by the occasion or the moment or the context or the opponent. He just plays so naturally.”
He continued: “He changed the game every time he got the ball. He made things happen and we looked like more of a threat. To do it at that age, in this context, with the pressure and expectations to win the game, it’s just not normal.”
The win gave Arsenal a nine-point lead over Manchester City, who drew 1-1 at West Ham later the same evening, and it came at the end of a match that Everton could have led at halftime given Dwight McNeil’s shot against the post and a Riccardo Calafiori block that prevented a second Toffees chance.
Arteta’s decision to bypass Gabriel Jesus, who has 78 Premier League goals and four title winner’s medals, and instead introduce a 16-year-old who had not appeared in the Premier League since August was described by one senior journalist as the “biggest balls” of the manager’s career at the club.
Jamie Redknapp put it plainly on Sky Sports: “Max Dowman did more in those 16 minutes plus added time than Bukayo Saka did on the right.”
Victor Gyokeres added his own endorsement to a chorus of praise: “He stays so calm and without fear every time he gets the ball. He takes the right decision most of the time as well.”