Max Dowman, a Premier League record and 22 minutes which changed the title race

The kind of moment you already know will be looked back on, maybe in the title race, almost certainly in the burgeoning career of one of the brightest talents in world football. You don’t even have to say “remember the name”. Max Dowman is everywhere, just as he was in a 22-minute appearance that also made him the youngest scorer in Premier League history.

That such a talent is the name on a stat like that feels both fitting and also the least of what this was about. Because this really isn’t about the numbers, astounding as Dowman’s mere 16 years and 73 days are, given his ability. It was about the feeling that you could certainly sense around a rapturous – and relieved – Arsenal stadium after this late 2-0 win over Everton .

A beaming Mikel Arteta later admitted that he’d had “a gut feeling that it was a moment for him” after watching Dowman in training this week. And just before the teenager went on, the manager’s very message reflected that feeling. “Go and do your thing and win us the game.

” Dowman streaks upfield to score Arsenal’s second goal (AFP via Getty Images) And how Arsenal needed him to do that. The moment – and the release – was all the more special because of how testing and trying everything before it had been. Just before Dowman offered the incisiveness that Arsenal had been lacking, there was a piece of play that had seemed to sum up everything that was wrong with them; that would have been pointed to had they only drawn 0-0.