The immediate future looks very bright for Arsenal and so does the more distant. On the night that Max Dowman became the club’s youngest player to start a match, at the age of just 15 years and 302 days, it was two other graduates of the Hale End academy who scored the decisive goals to send Mikel Arteta’s side into the last eight.
Ethan Nwaneri, who has one record that Arsenal’s latest protege can never beat, as the youngest player in Premier League history, found the net again on a rare start to settle an inexperienced Arsenal side’s nerves before Bukayo Saka rounded off the victory over Brighton after coming on to replace Dowman.
For some time it has been a matter of when and not if Dowman would be handed his first start having first trained with Arsenal’s senior squad when he turned 14, with the possibility he could still become the youngest player in Champions League history should he make an appearance before the end of January. But the absence of Gabriel Martinelli meant Arteta was short of attacking options and keen to rotate his squad before three testing away trips next week, as only Eberechi Eze retained his place from the win over Crystal Palace on Sunday.
If there were any doubts about whether Dowman was ready for this stage then they were dispelled in the 10th minute when a brilliant piece of control got the home fans out of their seats. Another teenager, Charalampos Kostoulas, should have made Arsenal pay from the resulting corner when Brighton raced downfield but he could only shoot wide. Georginio Rutter had also forced Kepa Arrizabalaga into an early save by then as the visitors started confidently.
It was understandable with so many changes that Arsenal lacked rhythm in attack, although their biggest threat came whenever Dowman got the ball on the right flank. With a mop of hair that he is constantly brushing away from his eyes, he is deceptively quick off the mark and left Belgium international defender Maxim De Cuyper for dead on more than one occasion. Fabian Hürzeler was left cursing his luck when somehow Jan Paul van Hecke headed wide from a corner five minutes before half-time. “We weren’t on our highest level in either box and Arsenal made us pay,” said the Brighton manager.
Dowman thought he should have had a penalty at the start of the second half when a mesmerising run was ended by Olivier Boscagli. The referee, Sam Barrott, waved away the appeals from the home crowd. A wonderful move that was triggered by Mikel Merino’s clever backheel eventually created the breakthrough, with Nwaneri finding the corner brilliantly after being set up by yet another academy graduate, Myles Lewis-Skelly. Eze saw another effort deflect just over as Arsenal started to find spaces in Brighton’s defence, with Hürzeler responding by introducing three attacking substitutes that surprisingly didn’t include top scorer Danny Welbeck.
Merino’s effort from a corner was cleared off the line before Dowman was given a standing ovation when he made way for Saka. The England forward didn’t waste any time making his mark when he fired in the rebound after Harriman-Anous’s shot was saved to maintain Arsenal’s winning run and send an ominous warning to their rivals.
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