As the Arsenal players got into an ecstatic dressing room, the man of the match wasn’t there. Goalscorer Viktor Gyokeres even came in carrying his award.
That is all because Max Dowman isn’t actually the man of the match but the boy of the match, since he’s still… just a child. Premier League rules mean he’s not actually allowed change in the same dressing room as adults. He has to go around near the referees’ room.
Maybe it also serves as another little way to keep a mere 16-year-old centred after such a moment, too, but nobody who knows the Dowmans says he needs that. His parents are said to still ground him for misbehaving, and are conscious of keeping the obvious confidence that comes with such ability in check.
There were of course among many people at Arsenal in tears after Dowman scored that crucial clinching goal against Everton. As was openly being said in the dressing room by many staff, they’d known him since he was small. You might quip that wasn’t that long ago, but it also speaks to the speed of his development.
And here he was, at 16 years and 73 days, becoming the youngest goalscorer in Premier League history.
Mikel Arteta is often criticised for a conservatism, but he still went for football’s classic roll of the dice when it was really required: the impetuousness of youth. Sir Alex Ferguson is the manager who has become most associated with that gamble over the history of the Premier League, due to everything from the “class of 92” to throwing on a 17-year-old Federico Macheda in a similar title game against Aston Villa. His logic was always clear: “if you give people an opportunity to succeed, it is amazing how much they will surprise you.”
Except, very little about Dowman is surprising. It isn’t exactly heaping pressure on a 16-year-old to say he’s being talked of as potentially the best player in the world in a few years, since so many around Arsenal say all the time. They are perhaps careful not to say it directly to him, but the Leo Messi comparisons are seen as entirely fitting.
It means Arteta is now in the exquisite position of pleading “calma” about such a prospect – as he did when asked if Dowman would start against Bayer Leverkusen on Tuesday – and being thrillingly excited about his talent.
The Basque spoke about a “gut feeling” he’s had all week, but there’s more to it than that. Since the start of the season, Dowman has just been gliding past senior professionals in training. You could see it in the Everton game. He was beating players and opening the match in a way that Arsenal badly needed. It was the same with the ball in that finally flummoxed Jordan Pickford for Gyokeres’ goal. Direct, with purpose.
From that, Arteta had in the last few weeks apparently told his Arsenal-supporting father, Rob, that some changes might be required to Dowman’s school schedule at Brentwood. The question was obviously why. “Because there’s a title to win.”
They know he can carry it. Alongside his talent, Dowman’s football brain is described as “extraordinary”. Arteta’s tactical and pressing instructions are known to be highly complex, and it can take senior professionals months to properly internalise them. Dowman does it in seconds.
This could be seen in one of the elements that Arsenal figures were most raving about after the 2-0 win over Everton.
With the ball in the air after Pickford went up for that 96th-minute corner, and Vitaliy Mykolenko coming in try and win it and force that equaliser, Dowman did something else unexpected. In the space of a millisecond, he decided to strain his neck muscles to head the ball down so that it would go in the opposite direction of the full-back. Mykolenko was so surprised that he fell over, as Dowman ensured he was now pulsing away on his feet and at the right pace.
From there, with Pickford also racing back, many players would have opted to immediately seize the chance and try a long-range shot. Dowman also showed mature composure with that. Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall was still in his way but he was evaded like a cone in training. Then he was away.
One of the things now being said about the goal at Arsenal was that the opposition half he still had to run through, and the seconds that took, offered a fitting final build-up to a moment everyone now feels they will be looking back to in years’ time.
They could see it coming, they could feel it. People nearby heard Dowman’s family repeat: “go on Max, go on!” Then, the arrival.
It should be acknowledged that any such moment would be special for a young player, his family and his club, something they can now always treasure. At the same time, you just can’t overlook that this is considered all the more special because of what it might mean for the future.
There will be many excited questions about that. Thomas Tuchel is no doubt going to have to face a few at his England squad announcement on Friday, and whether Dowman can be taken to a World Cup.
It instinctively feels like it’s a bit too early… but then you could say that about so much with Dowman. Nothing about him is surprising. This is now more than a gut feeling.
A title challenge that had become a psychological challenge for Arsenal, where they were feeling all the angst of that 22-year wait, now involves one of the most invigorating themes in football. It’s the excitement of youth, and what might be possible for the future.
