Max Dowman might have done more than merely score a historic and potentially decisive goal in the Premier League title race to seal Arsenal’s 2-0 win against Everton at the weekend. The 16-year-old wonderkid might have also achieved the improbable: making Mikel Arteta’s team likeable.
“Lovable” would probably be pushing it too far, considering the negativity that has built up around a team that is still on course to achieve an unprecedented quadruple this season.
Brighton & Hove Albion coach Fabian Hurzeler criticized Arsenal’s tactics and “time-wasting” during a 1-0 defeat earlier this month, while former Manchester United midfielder Paul Scholes said the Gunners would be the “worst team to win the league.” Peter Schmeichel, a five-time title winner with United, said Arsenal play an “ugly brand of football that is annoying to watch.”
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But even Arsenal’s most strident critic would struggle to ignore the feel-good vibes of a teenager who returned to school on Monday morning after scoring the stoppage-time goal — shortly after creating the opener for Viktor Gyökeres — which clinched a crucial victory for the Premier League leaders and made him the competition’s youngest-ever scorer.
Dowman’s late intervention was everything great about football. His goal was about risk, adventure, individuality and the freedom to play off the cuff. Maybe that’s why it created such a stir.
The goal showcased all the attributes that Arteta’s Arsenal have not only lacked this season, but perhaps even deliberately stifled as they have reduced their game to one of percentages — a game where risk and individuality are viewed as dangerous elements rather than must-have factors for a trophy-winning team.
And this is the great contradiction of Arteta’s Arsenal. His team could be less than three months away from becoming the first English side to achieve a clean sweep of trophies by winning the Premier League, UEFA Champions League, FA Cup and Carabao Cup in the same season, but nobody outside the Emirates Stadium likes it.
When Arsène Wenger’s 2003-04 side became known as the “Invincibles” by becoming champions without suffering a single league defeat, their breathtaking style earned them global admiration. An Arteta quadruple would eclipse Wenger’s team as the greatest year in the club’s history. They would also the surpass the Manchester United and Manchester City treble-winning sides of 1998-99 and 2022-23, respectively.
But if they win all four trophies this season — even if they win only the Premier League — Arsenal’s success would be regarded as a backward step for football and even a bad thing for the game because of the way Arteta’s team plays. Success leads to imitation. Everybody wants to be a winner and the shortcut to winning can often simply be a case of copying the best.
Just look at how many teams worldwide have adopted a model based on Pep Guardiola’s philosophy of possession and control triggered by a ball-playing goalkeeper. Guardiola has evolved his approach many times over, and his City side now has a keeper in Gianluigi Donnarumma who would not have suited Guardiola’s greatest Barcelona, Bayern Munich and City sides.
But the Guardiola influence has become deep-rooted because his philosophy brought success and, if Arteta’s direct approach delivers silverware at Arsenal, it will have a similar impact. Indeed, we have already seen “Artetaball” take hold in the Premier League with rival coaches putting greater focus on set pieces — particularly corners — because of the success Arteta, aided by set piece coach Nicolas Jover, has enjoyed in making Arsenal one of the most consistent teams in Europe.
Arsenal have scored 21 goals from set pieces in the Premier League this season — more than any other team in Europe’s top five leagues. That total for 34.4% of their league goals. Before this season, Blackburn Rovers (1994-95) and Manchester United (2007-08) recorded the most set piece goals as champions with 35% each.
Sir Alex Ferguson’s United won the Premier League and Champions League that season with a forward line of Cristiano Ronaldo, Wayne Rooney and Carlos Tevez, so they were anything but overreliant on goals from set pieces. Arsenal don’t have a Ronaldo, Rooney or Tevez, however, and that might go some way to explaining why Arteta’s team focuses so heavily on set piece goals.
The greatest teams of recent years have all had prolific scorers and attacking players capable of hitting double figures in goals. City have won trophies with the goals of Erling Haaland, Sergio Aguero, Kevin De Bruyne and Phil Foden. Liverpool did the same with Mohamed Salah, Luis Díaz, Sadio Mané and Roberto Firmino.
In Europe, over the past decade, Real Madrid have had Ronaldo, Karim Benzema, Vinícius Júnior and Kylian Mbappé, while Paris Saint-Germain won the Champions League last season with Ousmane Dembélé, Gonçalo Ramos, Khvicha Kvaratskhelia, Désiré Doué and Bradley Barcola scoring 99 goals between them in all competitions.
The sensational attacking football played by Luis Enrique’s side last season was evident again last week when PSG blew Chelsea away with three goals in the final 20 minutes of their 5-2 Champions League round-of-16 first-leg win in Paris.
Before Dowman’s late show against Everton, you would be hard pushed to recall any similar Arsenal moment this season because their forwards are less prolific and lack the free-flowing flair and freedom of the PSG stars or the attacking players in those great Real, City and Liverpool teams.
Only Gyökeres (16) and Gabriel Martinelli (11) have hit double figures for Arsenal so far this season, but Arteta’s side are nonetheless still the leading scorers in the Premier League. It is the aesthetic of Arsenal and their goals that makes them difficult to warm to, but Arteta has unquestionably hit upon a winning formula by reducing the game to a battle of marginal gains.
And that’s a problem that football will have to overcome. The Arteta approach has already led to imitation, and it will increase if Arsenal win major silverware. Not even a Max Dowman wonder goal will change that.
