It was the moment to blow the roof off the Emirates Stadium, the exclamation mark on a victory that felt pivotal to the destination of the Premier League title. Everton had been excellent, a colossal test for Arsenal and their credentials. Mikel Arteta and his players passed it. But it was more than that. It was the way they pulled through.
The goal to tilt it their way, the decisive one with time almost up, was tapped in by the substitute, Viktor Gyökeres. It came when Jordan Pickford brushed the ball into another replacement, Piero Hincapié and, with luck on Arsenal’s side, it broke perfectly for Gyökeres in front of an empty net.
Nobody in the red of Arsenal was talking about that one as they drifted out of the stadium, pulses racing. They were talking about the clincher that came shortly afterwards. The one that was scored by the gliding 16-year-old prodigy who is still in Year 11. Who has yet to take his GCSEs. The midfielder with the preternatural composure to go with his velvety touches. Who has no fear.
Arteta had sent on Max Dowman as a 72nd minute substitute for the deep-sitting midfielder, Martín Zubimendi. It was a bold attacking move, Dowman going to the right wing, Bukayo Saka coming inside, Eberechi Eze dropping deeper alongside Declan Rice. It was Dowman who supplied the ball in for the breakthrough goal and it was him that sparked the pandemonium at the end. Arteta called it “one of the best moments at the Emirates.”
Everton had sent Pickford forward for an all-or-nothing corner but when Arsenal cleared and the ball was worked to Dowman, he took over. He got away from Vitalii Mykolenko but it was the feint inside and away from Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall that took the breath. The Everton midfielder slumped to the turf and stayed there. He could see what was about to happen. Everybody could.
Dowman motored across halfway and nobody was going to catch him. It was a run to glory, just him and the goal, Everton’s players fading into the background behind him. He might have shot but instead he kept running, all the way to the penalty spot before he rolled the ball home.
The noise in the stands exploded like a firecracker, Arteta taking off in the celebratory leap of his life. It seemed as if Dowman had been installed as more than the Premier League’s youngest ever scorer. Has he provided the spark for Arsenal’s first title in 22 years?
“It felt like 45 seconds as Max ran through,” Arteta said. “It was building up and building up. You see there’s no goalie. It’s going to happen, it going to happen. It was incredible. What a moment.”
There is a reason why only Arsenal and Chelsea had better away records in the league than Everton at the beginning of the day. David Moyes has put together a serious team, one which is loaded with all of the attributes that people have come to expect of those he oversees.
Organisation. Physical fight. They make things so difficult for their opponents. And they can play a bit, too. James Garner, Idrissa Gueye, Dewsbury-Hall, Iliman Ndiaye. All were excellent here. What a job Moyes has done since he returned to a club in crisis in January of last year. This was always going to be a barometer for Arsenal. The reading on it ended up looking so good for them.
The tension pulsed throughout and it was like that because of how Everton played. Any Arsenal fan expecting a bit of bus parking from Moyes was misguided. Ndiaye shimmered with menace on the left and whenever Everton went forward in the first-half, they looked as though they could make something happen. Moyes could be frustrated that his team failed to score before the interval.
When Ndiaye got away from Jurriën Timber on 17 minutes, the Arsenal right-back went down injured. Ndiaye carried on and after David Raya parried his cross, it fell for Dwight McNeil, who was gloriously placed. The Everton winger struck for goal and he was denied by an acrobatic block from Riccardo Calafiori. Moyes called it “unbelievable” defending; of a piece with what Arsenal have produced all season. Timber tried to play on but he was forced off in the 37th minute.
Everton could point to other moments in the first-half, namely McNeil’s wonderful shot from the edge of the area that came back off the far post. Ndiaye was there for the rebound but the ball came too quickly too him. It hit him, rather than him hitting it. Raya was relieved to see it squirm narrowly wide. Dewsbury-Hall also forced Raya into a smart save.
Arsenal felt they ought to have had a penalty on 24 minutes when Kai Havertz, who started in the No 9 role, ran onto an Eze pass to catch Michael Keane on the wrong side. Keane’s challenge was clumsy and a little desperate. There was a faint brush from his hand on Havertz’s shoulder and a scrape from his boot on the Arsenal player’s leg. Havertz went down. It was in seen-them-given territory.
Moyes had been denied the services of James Tarkowski and he tersely dodged questions about why the key centre-half was missing. “Nothing to say about it,” he said, twice. Jarrad Branthwaite was also out. Everton dug in without them and they went close again early in the second half, Raya keeping out a shot from Beto.
Saka drew a routine save out of Pickford and Eze was inches past the far post with a first-time curler. The nerves jangled for the Arsenal support. It was almost unbearable for them. When Arteta listened to his gut and went for broke with Dowman, he reaped the ultimate reward.
