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, an incredible test for Arsenal and their credentials. Mikel Arteta and his players passed it. They found a way.
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 touched the ball on to Piero Hincapié and, with luck on their 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, their pulses racing. They were talking about the clincher that came shortly afterwards. The one that was scored by their gliding 16-year-old prodigy who has yet to take his GCSEs.
Mikel Arteta had sent on Max Dowman as a 74th-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. It was Dowman who supplied the ball in for the breakthrough goal and it was him who sparked mayhem with the coup de grace.
Everton had sent Pickford forward for an all-or-nothing last gasp corner but when Arsenal cleared and the ball was worked to Dowman, he took over. The confidence of this kid with the ball is utterly extraordinary. He got away from Vitalii Mykolenko but it was the feint inside and away from Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall that took the breath.
Dowman motored across halfway and nobody was going to catch him; a run to glory, just him and the goal. When he tapped the ball home, the noise in the stands exploded like a firecracker. Arteta led the frenzied celebrations and it felt as though 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?
There is a reason why only Arsenal and Chelsea had better away league records 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, as well. Idrissa Gueye, Dewsbury-Hall, Iliman Ndiaye. All were excellent here. What a job Moyes has done since returning to a club in crisis in January of last year. This was always going to be a barometer for Arsenal. A test to chalk off. They did so.
The tension pulsed throughout and it was that way 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, who Arteta started in place of Hincapié. Timber tried to play on but he was forced off in the 38th minute – a major setback for Arsenal.
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 to 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 pressed on to the front foot. They tried to rattle Everton but they created little of clearcut note in the first half. Pickford’s brilliant reflex save to deny Saka did not count because the Arsenal captain was offside. Not that Pickford knew that at the time.
Arsenal felt they ought to have had a penalty on 24 minutes when Kai Havertz ran on to an Eberechi 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 as well. Havertz went down. It was in seen-them-given territory.
It had to be noted that Moyes was without the injured defenders James Tarkowski and Jarrad Branthwaite. Everton dug in without them and they almost took the lead early in the second half when Beto turned and shot after a corner had sparked a melee in the Arsenal box. Again, Raya saved well. Where would Arsenal be without him this season?
Everton were a compact 4-5-1 without the ball. They did not mind inviting Arsenal on. They backed themselves to win the physical duels. Arteta had to find a way through. Patience was a part of it, as the home crowd fretted. But there had to be greater incision.
Arteta had shaken up his lineup at the outset. Was it because he felt it had been a little jaded in recent games? The headline call was Havertz for Gyökeres upfront; silk instead of steel. There was space for both Saka and Noni Madueke. It was Madueke who made the compromise to work on the left.
Arteta swapped Gyökeres for Havertz on the hour; it was not the latter’s day. And he introduced the more natural left-sided width of Gabriel Martinelli for Madueke. Saka drew a routine save out of Pickford and Eze was inches past the far post with a lovely first-time curler. The nerves jangled for the Arsenal fans. It was almost unbearable for them. When Arteta went for broke with Dowman, he reaped the ultimate reward.
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