Mikel Arteta said Arsenal’s 2-0 win over Everton was driven by desire more than comfort, before hailing Max Dowman after the 16-year-old helped change the game and then made Premier League history.
Mikel Arteta described Arsenal’s dramatic late win over Everton as one of the best moments he has shared with his players at the Emirates, after Viktor Gyokeres and Max Dowman turned a frustrating afternoon into a 2-0 victory. Arsenal had dominated possession and territory for long spells but were still waiting for the breakthrough until the 89th minute, when Gyokeres finally scored. Dowman then raced clear in stoppage time to seal the result and become the youngest goalscorer in Premier League history.
“A phenomenal moment”
Arteta’s first reaction was not to talk about title-race implications or the table. He went straight to the feeling of the finish.
“It was a phenomenal moment,” he said. “We talked before the game to play with that relentless desire to win every action and to have the conviction that we are going to find a way to do it.
“And the effort, the quality, the commitment of the players was sensational. And then it ended up in a manner that probably none of us expected. And it was one of the best moments that we lived together at the Emirates.”
Arsenal had not cut Everton open often enough for most of the game, but Arteta’s focus was on how hard his side kept pushing to force the issue.
Arteta’s gut feeling on Dowman
The biggest talking point afterwards was always going to be Dowman. The 16-year-old came on, changed the energy of the game, helped create the first goal and then scored the second himself.
Arteta admitted the decision to introduce him had been driven partly by instinct.
“Probably in my head I had a gut feeling,” he said. “Yesterday he was training in the last few days and I had a gut feeling that it was a moment for him.
“Probably because he doesn’t seem to be phased by the occasion or the moment or the context or the opponent. He just plays so naturally. He makes decisions to make things happen and what he delivered was incredible.”
He returned to that point later when asked what makes Dowman so unusual.
“I think his character, his personality and the fact that, as I said, he doesn’t seem to be fazed by the pressure or his teammates or the opponent,” Arteta said. “I’ve seen a lot of players with talent but at 16, very few that can cope with that level of demand.”
Gyokeres joins the praise
Gyokeres, whose goal finally broke Everton’s resistance, also made clear how much Dowman’s performance stood out to those around him. In Arsenal’s post-match coverage, the striker said: “When you see him play, you don’t think that he’s 16.” He added that Dowman’s composure on the ball makes his age almost irrelevant in the moment.
That matched Arteta’s own description of the final goal, which he said seemed to unfold in slow motion.
“For me, it felt like 45 seconds,” he said. “You could sense that he was building up, building up and you see there’s no goalie there, it’s going to happen, it’s going to happen. It was incredible. It was so loud, so energetic. What a moment.”
Composure against Everton
Arteta also gave credit to Everton, describing them as “a really good side” and “very difficult to break down”. He felt Arsenal had needed maturity as much as urgency.
“You have the necessity to win the game and the will to win it and you have to be calm,” he said. “I think the team showed a lot of maturity. The crowd as well, I think it was good today to be composed and wait for the right moment.”
By the end, that was the shape of his message. This was not Arsenal at their smoothest, but it was Arsenal at their most insistent. Arteta spoke about passion, gut feeling, finishers and belief.