Max Dowman arrives to inspire nervy Arsenal to stunning last-gasp win

By the time that Max Dowman danced his way past two Everton players on the halfway line to run the ball into the empty net and score his first Premier League goal – and become the youngest scorer in Premier League history – you would be forgiven for thinking this was just a carefree 2-0 win for the league leaders. As Salt-N-Pepa rang out, there was no emotion present but utter delight.

In fact, the crowd became more unsettled as the first half wore on. Despite a dominant start, Arsenal had failed to score. Everton were growing in confidence as the clock ticked along. When the referee blew for half-time, Kai Havertz gave a somewhat dejected look towards the sky, puffing out his cheeks. Noni Madueke shared a word with Gabriel Martinelli, who had come out for his half-time warm-up gesturing vaguely towards the left-hand side that he was occupying in Martinelli’s place. There was nothing melodramatic about these moments, just the first sense that the day was not going to be plain sailing. Arsenal of all teams know that fighting for the title never is.

At that point, nothing was particularly out of the ordinary in terms of the crowd’s reaction or Arsenal’s performance. A bit stodgy, but that should not be taking any regular Arsenal watcher by surprise now.

Yet as Arsenal fans gulped down their half-time pints, they clearly reflected with worry that this game could be going the way of the draws with Wolves and Brentford. By the time that they returned for the second half, they were ticket-holders for and participants in the Arsenal anxiety exhibition, a performance art piece where 60,000 people express their deep-held fears of failing to win the Premier League title through a variety of ways. For some, the referee was the source of their frustrations, howled at for every decision. For others, it was their own players. For some, silence. For others, relentless noise.

Mikel Arteta impassively clapped every poor action from his players, a man hoping the meeting of his two palms had the power to drown out the noise. If you see Arteta giving a double thumbs-up, this is actually a sign of a manager in distress.

This stomach-knotting experience is going to be the standard for Arsenal as they not so much inch but maybe millimetre their way to the finish line of this season. Kicking off two and a half hours before title rivals Manchester City, Arsenal had the opportunity briefly to extend their lead at the top to 10 points. Going first means that there is no immediate pressure, but failing to win is an automatic doom spiral.

For all of the discourse about Arsenal – the style of football, the set pieces, the mentality – they have not lost a game since a newly Ruben Amorim-less Manchester United arrived at the Emirates in late January. Yet the draws last month, along with the draw in midweek against Bayer Leverkusen, have firmly ramped up the pressure.

Arteta made the decision to start Havertz up front ahead of Viktor Gyökeres, while Madueke looked to bring direct running to the left-hand side. But he rarely has the same impact there that he does on the right. In the end it was Havertz and Madueke who were withdrawn in the 61st minute. Thirteen minutes later, it was 16-year-old Dowman that Arteta turned to. It would prove to be a substitution so meaningful that it will be shown as part of the highlights package on Match of the Day.

It is a privilege to get to spend every match at this stage of the season in agonies of anxiety. It is testament to the position that Arsenal have put themselves in, although it is also understandable that any excitement about that has long been tempered by the experiences of seasons past. They are worried it will all go wrong because they know that in the past, it has.

Someone who lives in a flat by the Emirates told me that she had to stop watching Arsenal games on television because the sound of the cheers for goals always spoiled what she was watching on the slight delay. The collective noise of a football ground is one of the most breathtaking sounds on earth, full of diffused feelings bundled up into the collective. It is also one of the most agonising. It leads people to believe they have the power to change the course of what is going on in front of their eyes. Sometimes they actually do.

And then in the 89th minute, Gyökeres scored. Dowman swung in a cross that left Everton’s defence at a loss. As Piero Hincapié let the ball bounce off him, the Swedish striker tapped into an empty net. And if there was a roof on the stadium, it would have been blown off and crushed all the flats that had just had that goal spoiled by the ear-splitting roar. When Dowman himself scored minutes later, the noise might have spoiled it across all of London.

Photograph by Alex Pantling/Getty Images