James Vaughan had held the Premier League’s youngest scorer record since 2005. Fittingly, an Everton match is what ended it. Max Dowman, 16 years and 73 days old, became the competition’s youngest ever goalscorer on Saturday night.
He came off the bench in the 74th minute with Arsenal going nowhere, a game still goalless and the Emirates growing anxious. What followed in stoppage time was remarkable — Everton pushed everyone including Jordan Pickford up for a corner. The ball broke to Dowman, who dribbled around one Everton player, nudged past another, and ran half the length of the pitch. He rolled it into an unguarded net.
It was only his third Premier League appearance. He is still in school, still required under FA safeguarding rules to change in a separate dressing room from his senior teammates. Arteta had spotted him at 14 and invited him to train with the first team. He starred in Arsenal’s Asia preseason against AC Milan and Newcastle, then in November became the youngest player in Champions League history at 15 years and 308 days.
His impact on Saturday went beyond the goal. The cross that led to Viktor Gyokeres breaking the deadlock in the 89th minute — the first goal of the night — came from Dowman too. Before he came on, Arteta’s side were flat, their 13 first-half shots mustering just 0.5 expected goals while Everton, missing both Tarkowski and Branthwaite, were actually the more dangerous side.
“It was a great moment, especially with the way the goal built up. We had 10 or 15 seconds to really enjoy what was about to happen,” Arteta said. “It was magical, all the bench and players together jumping up with the crowd, it was a beautiful day.”
Jamie Redknapp on Sky Sports was equally effusive: “I promise you, Arsenal were not going to win the game until he came on. They were in quicksand. They had no energy, the crowd were on them. He changed the whole complexion of that game. He hasn’t even done his GCSEs and he is doing things like that and making the game look easy.”
Arsenal moved nine points clear of Manchester City, who dropped points at West Ham later that evening. With eight games left, a first title since 2004 is closer than ever. And somewhere in the Emirates dressing room — the separate one — a 16-year-old from Chelmsford was probably just glad to be there.
