New Headline: Max Dowman's Return to 'Aston Martin' Signals a Refreshing Return in F1, After 4 Years Away
Why didn’t Max Dowman play for Arsenal for months? Max Dowman’s record breaking performance against Everton has prompted questions about why the teenager was not seen more often earlier in the season. Photo by Alex Pantling/Getty Images Watching Sunday Supplement on Sky Sports on Sunday morning, the panel praised Max Dowman after his superb, game changing performance against Everton on Saturday evening, when he created the first goal and scored the second to become the youngest ever goalscorer in the history of the Premier League at 16 years and 73 days old.
It was somewhat surprising to hear Craig Hope , chief football reporter at the Daily Mail , mention twice that, having seen how impressive Dowman was during Arsenal ’s pre-season in Singapore in the summer, it has taken until March to see him unleashed. There is a very clear reason for that – he was injured. Dowman’s ankle ligaments were damaged at the start of December in a behind-closed-doors friendly against Manchester United , organised to help Gabriel Jesus return to match fitness after a year out with an ACL injury.
The problem ruled him out for 79 days and 21 games. Before that setback, if Hope had been paying attention, he would have seen Dowman feature in five Arsenal matches, including two in the Premier League (v Leeds (with an assist) and Liverpool ), two in the EFL Cup (v Port Vale and Brighton ), and one in the Champions League (v Slavia Praha ). He has been in 17 Arsenal first team squads this season, starting one, and being subbed on six times.
In addition, he has also played three in Premier League 2 (with two goals), and two in the UEFA Youth League (with four goals). In total, Dowman has seven goals and an assist in 12 appearances/625 minutes of football at all levels this season for Arsenal. Had he not been injured so badly, there is no doubt that he would have played much more, particularly during Arsenal’s most recent, stodgy run.
Dowman has also played eight times for England’s u19 s, scoring one and assisting three as they won seven and drew the other. He started six of those games. Photo by Alex Pantling/Getty Images Dowman returned from his ankle injury when he was named on the bench against Brighton on 4th March before being back there for Arsenal’s Champions League game against Bayer Leverkusen .