Max Makes Marks Skidding Town Out Of Tournament

Mighty Max Makes His Mark as Arsenal’s Kids Keep Coming

There are nights in the Carabao Cup when the result is almost beside the point. Arsenal’s 4-2 win at Ipswich put us safely into the last 16, but the scoreline will probably be a footnote to the thing we’ll actually remember.

Max Dowman.

Sixteen years old. First competitive start of the season. Six minutes gone. Goal.

And not some fortunate ricochet off his shin either. Dowman won the ball high up the pitch, continued his run, took Ebere Eze’s return pass, wrong-footed Cedric Kipre and buried his finish into the bottom corner.

That’s not what 16-year-olds are supposed to do.

At that age, most of us were trying to work out how to get served in a pub. Dowman is apparently trying to work out how quickly he can get into Mikel Arteta’s Premier League team.

NO FEAR

What impressed me wasn’t simply the two goals. It was the complete absence of fear.

Young players sometimes make their first appearances looking as though they’ve been instructed not to make a mistake. Keep it simple. Give it to the senior players. Don’t take risks.

Dowman looked as though nobody had bothered to tell him he was the kid.

His second goal arrived just 90 seconds after half-time. Martin Zubimendi helped work the ball through to him and Dowman calmly rolled it into the bottom corner.

Two goals.

Sixteen years and 258 days old.

Only Cesc Fabregas has scored younger for Arsenal in this competition, and Dowman became only the second 16-year-old to score twice in a game for a Premier League club in all competitions. The other was some bloke called Wayne Rooney.

Decent company.

Comparisons at this age are dangerous, of course. Arsenal supporters have seen enough wonderkids to know that development rarely travels in a straight line.

But equally, there comes a point when pretending not to be excited becomes ridiculous.

This boy looks special.

ARSENAL’S PRODUCTION LINE

Dowman wasn’t the only teenager worth watching.

Marli Salmon, barely 17 himself, played alongside Gabriel and looked remarkably composed. He defended when he needed to defend, carried the ball confidently into midfield and generally behaved as though playing senior football at Portman Road was perfectly normal.

Later, Theo Julienne came on for his competitive debut.

That matters.

For all the money Arsenal have spent assembling a squad capable of challenging for the biggest trophies, there remains something uniquely satisfying about watching another Hale End player emerge.

Saka. Lewis-Skelly. Nwaneri. Now Dowman, Salmon and Julienne are knocking on the door.

You can buy quality.

You can’t buy that connection.

NONI LOOKING DANGEROUS

There were plenty of encouraging signs elsewhere.

Noni Madueke caused Ipswich problems throughout and smashed in Arsenal’s second after some excellent pressing and a lovely Mikel Merino chip put him through.

Madueke increasingly looks like a player capable of giving Arteta exactly what he wants from his wide players: pace, directness and the willingness to attack defenders rather than simply recycle possession.

Merino then got the fourth, controlling Bruno Guimaraes’ pass before firing in off the post.

At 4-0, it was job done.

The two Ipswich goals — Anis Mehmeti first and former Gunner Chuba Akpom in stoppage time — made the final scoreline look slightly less comfortable than the match actually was.

Arteta won’t particularly enjoy conceding twice.

I doubt it will keep him awake.

THE BIGGER PICTURE

This is exactly what you want from the League Cup.

Win the game. Rest some players. Give others minutes. Introduce youngsters to senior football. Discover whether the next generation can handle it.

And occasionally discover that one of them doesn’t merely handle it.

He grabs hold of the game.

Nobody should be demanding that Dowman starts every Premier League match now. He needs protecting, managing and developing properly. There will be poor games because there are poor games for every 16-year-old footballer who has ever lived.

But there is also no point pretending we didn’t see what we saw at Portman Road.

Two goals.

Two composed finishes.

No fear.

Arsenal are into the last 16.

And Max Dowman has properly announced himself.

The scary thing?

He’s still not old enough to drive himself home.

Raya Unfazed By Crazy VAR Decision

Raya Saves Arsenal From VAR’s Latest Moment of Madness

Arsenal’s 100 per cent Premier League record remains intact. Six wins on the spin in all competitions, another clean sheet, Bruno Guimaraes off the mark and Bukayo Saka putting the cherry on top.

So why did Mikel Arteta look like a man who wanted to throttle somebody?

Because Arsenal’s 2-0 victory at Sunderland could quite easily have been turned on its head by one of those refereeing decisions that makes you wonder what on earth VAR is actually there for.

Thankfully, David Raya had other ideas.

With the game still in the balance, referee John Brooks decided that Ezri Konsa’s tussle with Dan Ballard constituted a penalty. Arteta subsequently described Ballard’s contribution as a “judo roll”, which was considerably more diplomatic than some Arsenal supporters will have been.

I’ve watched it again and I’m still struggling to understand what Konsa was supposed to have done.

More importantly, VAR watched it too.

That’s the bit that gets me.

Referees will make mistakes. Football happens quickly. Bodies collide, players exaggerate contact and officials occasionally see something that simply wasn’t there.

Fine.

But we now have several people sitting in a room watching the same incident from umpteen different angles, in slow motion, with the ability to tell the referee: John, you might want another look at that.

And they still managed to arrive at a penalty.

Arteta was absolutely raging afterwards.

“It is unacceptable at this level,” he said. “This can change the course of a season.”

He’s right.

Imagine Le Fee scores. Sunderland suddenly have momentum, the Stadium of Light erupts and Arsenal are facing a completely different final half-hour.

Instead, Raya produced a superb save.

And 121 seconds later, Arsenal scored.

That is what title-challenging teams do.

Rather than feeling sorry for themselves, Arsenal went straight up the other end and punished Sunderland. Guimaraes collected the ball around 20 yards out and curled a beauty into the net for his first Arsenal goal.

Not a bad way to introduce yourself.

Sunderland deserve some credit because they made Arsenal work extremely hard. This wasn’t some procession against a side content to admire Arsenal’s football. They competed, disrupted and made the Gunners uncomfortable.

But this Arsenal team increasingly seems to possess something previous incarnations didn’t always have.

They can win ugly.

They can survive difficult periods.

And when something goes against them, they don’t necessarily collapse into an extended bout of self-pity.

Raya saves the penalty.

Two minutes later: bang.

Guimaraes.

Game changed.

Then, deep into stoppage time, Reinildo Mandava picked up his second yellow and Arsenal were finally awarded a penalty of their own.

Up stepped Saka.

2-0.

Goodnight Sunderland.

There will inevitably be people saying Arteta shouldn’t complain because Arsenal won.

Nonsense.

That is precisely when you should complain.

Do it after a defeat and everybody says you’re making excuses. Do it after you’ve won 2-0 and nobody can accuse you of blaming the referee for the result.

Arteta wasn’t asking for Arsenal to receive special treatment. He was asking how, with all the technology now available, such a dubious decision can survive VAR scrutiny.

And that’s a question football still hasn’t satisfactorily answered.

VAR was supposed to eliminate the howlers.

Instead, we’ve reached the bizarre stage where supporters sometimes watch a replay of an incident, reach an obvious conclusion within ten seconds, and then wait several minutes while highly trained officials apparently discover an entirely different version of reality.

Fortunately, on this occasion it didn’t matter.

Raya made sure of that.

Six consecutive victories. Another clean sheet. Guimaraes up and running. Saka on the scoresheet. Arsenal still perfect in the Premier League.

And perhaps the most encouraging thing of all?

On a day when the referee very nearly changed the game, Arsenal simply changed it back.

Loose Cannon verdict: Sunderland 0 Arsenal 2. Three points, clean sheet, perfect record intact.

VAR 0 David Raya 1.

NAPOLI CHASE SHADOWS AS ØDEGAARD DELIVERS THE KILLER BLOW

There are wins, and then there are the nights when you watch Arsenal patiently take a very good European side apart and think: this lot really do know exactly what they’re doing.

Napoli made us work for it. They defended, they competed and for 74 minutes they somehow kept us out. But Arsenal never panicked. We kept playing. Kept passing. Kept moving them around. And eventually Napoli simply couldn’t live with it.

On 75 minutes, the breakthrough finally arrived — and it was pure Arsenal.

Bruno Guimarães found Ben White inside the box, White laid it back to Martin Ødegaard and suddenly Napoli were chasing shadows. Ødegaard exchanged passes with Christos Tzolis before absolutely thumping his finish in off the post from the edge of the area.

1–0. Fourth of the campaign for Ødegaard. And thoroughly deserved.

This wasn’t a lucky ricochet or a goal conjured from nothing. It was the reward for sticking to the football we had played all night. Pass. Move. Drag them out. Go again. Eventually something breaks.

Napoli broke.

We should have finished them off six minutes from time. Kai Havertz surged forward on the counter and released Noni Madueke, who suddenly had the goal at his mercy. Milinković-Savić somehow kept out the one-on-one with his feet, and when Tzolis followed up, his effort was cleared off the line.

That should have been that.

Then, in the dying seconds, Havertz actually did have the ball in the net after Milinković-Savić spilled another Tzolis effort. Cue celebrations — followed by that modern football disease: the delayed offside flag.

No goal.

Never mind.

Sixty seconds later the whistle went anyway.

Arsenal 1, Napoli 0.

And here’s the statistic that should make the rest of Europe sit up: 13 consecutive victories in the league phase of the competition.

Thirteen.

European football is supposed to be where the margins get smaller, where one mistake kills you and where even the best sides occasionally come unstuck.

Arsenal just keep winning.

Perhaps the most encouraging thing was the patience. There was no desperation at 0–0. No abandoning the plan. No hopeful punts into the penalty area because the clock was ticking. We trusted the passing game until Napoli could no longer follow it.

Then Ødegaard punished them.

That’s what serious teams do.

And if Napoli spent much of the evening chasing shadows, they won’t be the last.

The Cannon keeps rolling.

Sign For A Big Club

You Should Have Signed for a Big Club! Arsenal Turn Chelsea’s Early Swagger into Another Emirates Defeat

Arsenal 2 Chelsea 1

There are few things more satisfying in football than watching an opposition player celebrate as though he has just won the World Cup, only to spend the rest of the afternoon discovering that he may have poked a rather large bear.

Morgan Rogers needed just 77 seconds to silence the Emirates. His superb volley from outside the area flew past David Raya and suddenly Chelsea were ahead, their new boy was celebrating and Arsenal’s perfect start to the season was under threat.

The Arsenal supporters had an answer.

“YOU SHOULD HAVE SIGNED FOR A BIG CLUB!”

Welcome to the Emirates, Morgan.

It was particularly delicious because Arsenal had been linked with Rogers before his move to Chelsea. He had chosen blue. The North Bank clearly hadn’t forgotten.

For a few minutes Arsenal looked rattled. Riccardo Calafiori appeared to have equalised, only for VAR to intervene and rule it out for offside. But rather than lose their heads, the champions gradually took control.

And who better to bring Arsenal level than Kai Havertz?

Declan Rice found the German, Havertz made himself a yard and promptly smashed the ball past Emi Martinez at his near post.

Yes, that Emi Martinez.

An ex-Gunner in the Chelsea goal was always going to receive a lively reception, but conceding at his near post to Havertz ensured that the Emirates faithful weren’t exactly inclined to send him home with a bunch of flowers.

Chelsea nearly restored their lead when Pedro Neto hit the post in first-half stoppage time, but Arsenal went into the break level and emerged looking like a side that knew precisely what it was doing.

Five minutes into the second half, the turnaround was complete.

Christos Tzolis drove down the left and fired a low ball towards Havertz. The German produced a wonderful dummy, allowing it to run through to Martin Odegaard, and the skipper buried his left-footed finish.

2-1.

From 0-1 after 77 seconds to 2-1 after 50 minutes.

Chelsea had poked the bear. The bear had eaten them.

They certainly had chances afterwards. Estevao forced a magnificent save from Raya, while Reece James pumped balls into the Arsenal area as Chelsea desperately searched for an equaliser. But Arsenal stood firm.

Rice controlled the midfield. Havertz finished with a goal and an assist. Odegaard provided the winner. Raya produced the big save when required.

And Chelsea?

For all the money spent and all the noise surrounding another rebuild, they still haven’t beaten Arsenal in the Premier League since August 2021.

That is becoming less a statistic and more an archaeological period.

There was still time for one final bit of Emirates entertainment.

As Martinez made his way home afterwards, the former Arsenal keeper received plenty of stick from supporters. Football crowds have long memories, and the Argentine’s various encounters with his old club have hardly been characterised by warm nostalgia. After conceding twice and leaving north London empty-handed, his journey away from the Emirates was accompanied by a few reminders of exactly where he was.

Farewell, Gabi

The victory also came with a genuinely sad piece of Arsenal news: Gabriel Martinelli has now officially left the club to join Al-Hilal.

The Brazilian departs for a club-record fee received, making the deal extraordinary business financially, but that doesn’t mean he won’t be missed.

Martinelli arrived as a relatively unknown teenager and became one of the symbols of Arsenal’s transformation under Arteta: direct, fearless, ridiculously quick and always prepared to run himself into the ground for the shirt.

There were frustrating spells. There were questions over his final ball and whether he had quite fulfilled the enormous potential we saw during his breakthrough. But there were also huge goals, electrifying performances and that infectious enthusiasm which made it very difficult not to like him.

Football moves quickly. Arsenal have evolved, competition for places has become ferocious and a record offer is difficult to refuse.

But Gabi leaves with our thanks.

Once a Gunner, always a Gunner.

Meanwhile, back at the Emirates, Arsenal have nine points from nine.

Three matches. Three wins.

And Chelsea arrived, scored after 77 seconds and presumably thought this might finally be their day.

It wasn’t.

Perhaps Morgan Rogers should have listened to the North Bank.

“YOU SHOULD HAVE SIGNED FOR A BIG CLUB!”

Sent from my iPhone