Arsenal needed two late goals to beat Everton at the Emirates, with Viktor Gyokeres finally breaking the deadlock before Max Dowman raced clear to make history with a stoppage-time second.
Arsenal had to wait, and then wait again, but two late goals finally forced Everton open at the Emirates. For much of the evening, this looked like another one of those awkward games in which Arteta’s side would dominate the ball without finding the finish to match it. Instead, the breakthrough arrived in the 89th minute through Viktor Gyokeres, before Max Dowman capped the night in stoppage time with a second that sealed the points and put his name into the record books.
Arsenal control the game, but Everton threaten first
The pattern was clear from the opening stages. Arsenal had almost all of the ball and spent long spells camped in Everton territory, but clear chances were harder to come by than the possession count suggested. The home side moved it crisply enough through midfield, with Declan Rice and Martin Zubimendi setting the platform and Eberechi Eze trying to find spaces between the lines, yet the final pass or final touch kept eluding them.
Everton, meanwhile, carried enough threat on the break to remind Arsenal the game was not under control just because the ball was. Their best opening of the first half came from exactly that kind of moment, and Arsenal were saved by Riccardo Calafiori, whose acrobatic scorpion kick stop denied a goal that looked certain. It was the kind of intervention that changed the feel of the evening. Instead of chasing the game, Arsenal stayed level and kept pushing.
Timber goes off as Arsenal keep probing
Arteta’s first-half frustration deepened in the 36th minute when Jurrien Timber was forced off injured. The defender had started at right-back but could not continue, with Cristhian Mosquera sent on in his place.
Even with that disruption, Arsenal remained in charge territorially. The problem was not control. It was incision. The ball kept arriving in dangerous areas without the sort of conviction that turns pressure into goals, and Everton seemed increasingly comfortable with the idea of defending their box and waiting for the clock to move.
Dowman changes it, then makes history himself
That is why Arteta eventually turned to his bench again. Max Dowman was introduced to try to alter the rhythm of the match, and the teenager did exactly that. With the game drifting towards a frustrating draw, Arsenal finally found the quality they had been missing. Dowman delivered a superb cross into the area, Piero Hincapie cushioned it down, and Gyokeres did the rest, finishing late to give Arsenal the lead they had spent most of the night chasing.
That should have been enough, but there was still one final twist. With Everton sending Jordan Pickford forward for a late corner, Arsenal won the ball back and broke into the open field left behind. Dowman collected it, ran half the pitch, beat two players and steered the ball towards an empty net to make it 2-0.
The goal carried more than one meaning. It killed the game, lifted the Emirates, and also made Dowman the youngest scorer in Premier League history, beating the long-standing mark previously held by Everton’s James Vaughan. A record which had stood since 2005.
For long stretches, Arsenal made this harder than it needed to be. But by the end, they had the two things they wanted most: the points and a fresh moment of history.