MAX-IMUM JOY
Arsenal vs Everton, a historically stodgy game, against a club with a manager who is the footballing father of Mikel Arteta… seasons have been flamed against Moyesy. The man is not to be underestimated. The only manager who enjoyed wrecking Arsenal more from a lowly position was David O’Leary back in the 90s.
I had been putting out the message for weeks that this was the game to be worried about…
‘conspiracy theorist’
‘catastrophizer’
‘CUCK’
Last one was harsh, but the warning was merited. Everton didn’t really go man for man, they just put out a dirty double-layered 5-4-1 deep block, and sat two wingers very wide so they could go direct with balls over the top.
I’m gonna be real with every single one of you… I thought Arsenal were really good in the first half despite the attacking output not being where we wanted it to be. My view before the game in the write-up was that this would go down to the wire. If we could ride the freshness advantage in the first 45, things might open up in the second half… and open up they did (the things).
This was one of those games where you felt the fans would play a key role. There are two types of Arsenal fan performance. The nervous groaning or the ‘fuck it, let’s get behind this performance, even if it’s horrible.’ On around 50 minutes, you knew the fans were keyed into the brief, and they were unreal in possibly the biggest nailbiter of the season.
Arteta fuelled the fan energy with some good subs. Gyokeres and Martinelli took the place of Madueke and Kai… and the chaos and urgency those two brought to the occasion did not go unnoticed. It was a message to everyone they needed to slay the beast of Everton. Even if it was ugly at times, you just felt there was a bit more purpose and a bit more acceptance of risk.
But the real big swing was Max Dowman. He was warming up and there was a feeling he might be important. Many of us looked at the bench before the game and thought the most likely unlock tool was… a 16 year old.
Max entered the fray with Hincapie on 71 minutes. Arteta turned on the afterburners. This was do or die. A high risk approach to a true moment of jeopardy in our season. Win, and the pressure was on City. Anything other than that would have been a bump of something illicit on a key for them on a night where hopes were fading.
Max was instantly the focal point of the game. He hugged the right as Saka dropped inside. His control was precise, his movement was hard to manage, and his boldness to do something with every action started to create contagion in the team and inspired renewed belief in tired legs.
It was crazy to watch players like Declan Rice almost ignore the left side of the pitch because they all knew Max was where the magic was at. His moment landed on a plate, Eze gifted him a free shot from the right and he blazed it over. That miss could have downed most players, but Max used it as inspiration.
Then it happened. Max was out on the right and he whipped the most devastating diagonal ball at the back post, Pickford gambled on it, missed his punch, it landed on the nether regions of Hincapie, and fell perfectly for Gyokeres to bury a screamer from 3 yards out… just delicious. Gyok ran to do the Bane mask and fluffed it because Dowman smashed into his back to celebrate. Just an incredible moment.
But there was more to come. In the 97th minute, Everton won a corner, Arsenal cleared their lines, Max was onto the ball, he cleared Gardiner who was left in a heap, he dummied past Mykolenko who fell to the floor and he was free… he powered at the goal over 50 yards and passed the ball into an empty net to kill the game.
Watching him run over to the corner flag, kick it, and roll into the arms of the home fans gives me chills… I’ve watched the goal 100 times. It is just awesome.
The most consequential late Arsenal goal since Reiss Nelson a few years ago? The most impactful teenage goal since Macheda for United against Villa in 09? The most ‘I’m fucking here everyone’ goal since Rooney against Arsenal? The most important ‘we could win the title’ goal since Marc Overmars?
All of the above. We just witnessed a piece of history we’ll talk about for the next 30 years. Max Dowman, difference maker, future Arsenal and England legend. Incredible!
The game closed out in the 98th minute (I think). The fans and players went wild. There were just too many brilliant performances to list.
Captain Declan delivering unrelenting energy and momentum…
Hincapie with that slide tackle at the end…
David Raya with the leg save at his near post from a 6 yard strike…
That wild scorpion block from Calafiori in the first half…
The whole team refusing to fall victim to shite refereeing…
Mikel Arteta for making BOLD subs that delivered…
Gyokeres for doing the absolute most with his one chance by taking up a position no other player in the team would have, you could say, he was a Gyok in the box…
Martinelli for clearing the ball for Dowman, and blocking Everton players on the run, never giving up on supporting his teammate…
Mosquera coming in for Timber and making some BIG tackles…
Eze for getting better and better as the game went on and showing he belongs at this level…
Things just don’t get better than that… but they did.
Man City players had to deep the reality of that late win. They had the game on their phones. They thought we were buried. They knew what the momentum of that win would do to our belief as a team. Could it rattle them? Was that Arsenal result to City, what the City turnaround against Liverpool was to Arsenal when they flumped at Brentford?
Yes. West Ham went 1-0 down to a sliced Bernardo cross. But Mavropanos capitalised on the second HUGE Donnarumma mistake of the week and put his header in off the bar.
City had nothing. Pep was rolling little spitballs from the stands, on the blower to Pep Lijnders, but nothing would work.
£600m in spend over the past year to give him a good send-off… the biggest wage bill in football. The two best players in the Premier League outside the big 6 joining to support the cause… and they dropped 2 points to West Ham.
The pro pundit class have enough content to keep them going for 4 weeks, but they won’t, will they? They won’t talk about bottle. There will be no focus on the expenditure. They won’t ask questions of a manager going off the rails. They’ll go after Arsenal for relying on a 16-year-old or something else absurd like that.
But who cares? No Premier League game for 4 weeks. We’re 9 points clear at the top of the league. We have Bournemouth at home when we return, City have Chelsea away.
Could be very, very big.
So, enjoy the moment. That was a massive day of jeopardy that went our way. We haven’t won the league, but we’ve taken advantage of a team down on its luck. That is magic.
A star was born today, and no, I don’t want credit for suggesting Max would be pivotal to our run in. I don’t need that credit. Adulation. Being called a visionary by random passers-by on the street. No, today is about Arsenal. It’s about us as fans. Have a GREAT day. Spurs later. They’re gonna get wrecked by Liverpool. x