The Athletic FC ⚽ is The Athletic’s daily football (or soccer, if you prefer) newsletter. Sign up to receive it directly to your inbox.
Hello! Be prepared to feel your age.
Coming up:
🧒 Dowman smashes EPL record
🐄 Chelsea huddle beef
🫨 Guler’s 68-metre lob
🟥 Red card… for boot throwing
History maker: Dowman becomes youngest EPL scorer, puts Arsenal on cusp of title
Dowman celebrates scoring (Stuart MacFarlane/Arsenal FC via Getty Images)
It feels as if every time Max Dowman features in TAFC, he’s breaking a record. His career progression is like an incremental climb through milestone after milestone, each of them reminding us just how young he is.
When he tore away from his own half and killed off Everton on Saturday, becoming the Premier League’s youngest goalscorer, you’d almost have said it was written; a record the Arsenal midfielder had been screeching towards and was always going to smash. He’s absurdly fresh-faced — 16 years and 73 days old as the ball rolled in — and the new mark he set won’t be beaten in a hurry.
The previous record, held by James Vaughan (coincidentally of Everton, and aged 16 years and 270 days when he claimed it), had been in place since 2005, but whereas Vaughan’s career petered out down the divisions, Dowman has the potential to be a Premier League force for the next two decades. He has been making tongues wag at Arsenal for ages, touted as their best academy product bar none. He is also one of those kids who is too good to hold back.
Jack Lang wrote this morning about the challenge for Arsenal and their manager, Mikel Arteta, of protecting Dowman from the flood of global attention coming his way. In fairness to them, they’ve tried hard to this point. His appearance on Sunday was only his seventh of the season, most of which have come off the bench. Arteta isn’t leaning on him heavily, but fast-tracking the lad is unavoidable. Dowman is outgrowing youth-team football rapidly.
His was a precious intervention on Saturday too, a 97th-minute counter-attack that put Everton to bed (below) and, by the end of the weekend, left Arsenal nine points clear at the top of the Premier League. Dowman is on for a winner’s medal in season one — and you’d confidently expect it to be the first of many.
Pressure on City
Despite his talent, Dowman is still on scholarship forms at Arsenal. He is too young to take up a professional contract, but even though he can’t accept a pro deal until he turns 17 in December, an agreement for him to sign one is already in place. Arsenal, wisely, got the formalities sorted a couple of months ago.
The pleasing thing for Arteta is that he’s free to blood Dowman gently and sensibly. Arsenal are in great shape, with a realistic chance of lifting four trophies over the next couple of months, and there’s no need to burden him with undue pressure. It had been a goalless slog for 89 minutes before Viktor Gyokeres broke Everton’s tough resistance on Saturday. He and Dowman did the trick by transferring pressure onto Manchester City, who let it get to them during a 1-1 draw at West Ham United a few hours later.
If Arsenal do cross the line first and take the title this time, the power and the glory will belong to Arteta’s stalwarts: your Gabriels, your Declan Rices and your Bukayo Sakas. Dowman’s part will have been a minor supporting role, but you get the sense that every time Arsenal let him loose, the 16-year-old will steal headlines. Remember the name, because you’ll be hearing a lot more of it.
News round-up
- The 2026 Finalissima — a game between Europe’s champions (Spain) and their South American counterparts (Argentina) — has been cancelled owing to the military conflict in the Middle East. It was due to take place in Qatar on March 27. European football governing body UEFA says Argentina rejected alternative venues.
- Joan Laporta was re-elected as Barcelona president last night, taking 68 per cent of the vote. His victory was never in doubt. Barca’s players looked a little leggy at home against Sevilla earlier in the day, but ‘a little leggy’ is relative when we’re talking about a squad so capable. They won 5-2, with the bonus of Gavi’s long-awaited comeback from injury.
- More members of the Iran women’s squad have chosen to return to the country after initially seeking asylum in Australia, according to a member of the Australian government.
- Former Arsenal, Chelsea and England defender Ashley Cole has landed his first head coaching job, taking over at Italian Serie B side Cesena. The 45-year-old is on a short-term deal to June with a team who are eighth in the table.
- Liverpool goalkeeper Alisson, 33, is to remain with the club until at least the end of next season after they triggered a one-year contract extension.
Huddle muddle: Referee stands ground as Chelsea do team talk before game
If you watch Chelsea regularly, you’ll have picked up on their habit of performing a huddle in the centre circle before the start of each half. It grates on opposition supporters, but in the grand scheme, it’s something of nothing.
Or it was until Saturday, when Paul Tierney — the referee for their 1-0 defeat to Newcastle United at Stamford Bridge — was caught in the middle of their huddle ahead of the opening kick-off, creating the peculiar spectacle of him surrounded by Chelsea players and Cole Palmer giving him a cuddle.
Chelsea head coach Liam Rosenior was humourless about it and promised to complain to the Professional Game Match Officials Limited (PGMOL), which manages referees in England, about Tierney’s insistence on standing his ground on the centre spot. It’s all a bit daft, and as The Athletic’s Liam Twomey says, Rosenior should be more concerned about a table showing his team down in sixth after the weekend fixtures.
Liverpool crept up above them into fifth yesterday, but without any optimism or joy. Tottenham Hotspur grabbed a late 1-1 draw at Anfield — a badly-needed step forward for Igor Tudor — and Dominik Szoboszlai exposed festering frustrations in Liverpool’s camp, saying: “If we carry on like this, we should be happy with (qualifying for) the Conference League.” Ouch.
Guler golazo: ‘Frame it and hang it on the wall’
YouTube@skysportsfootball
I’ve watched Arda Guler’s weekend lob for Real Madrid — “You should frame it and hang it on the wall,” in the words of Madrid head coach Alvaro Arbeloa — so many times in the past 48 hours. It’s not that long-range goals are unheard of (if anything, they’re more regular than ever) but I can’t get my head around Guler scoring from that distance.
He wasn’t even level with the closest edge of the centre circle when he had a go at catching out Elche goalkeeper Matias Dituro. He stood 15 metres inside his own half, and it instantly went down as one of the most inspired strikes that Madrid’s Bernabeu has witnessed in its 78 years (that’s up against some seriously stiff competition, too). The strike of the ball was beautifully clean.
The only thing I’d question: is there a range beyond which a goalkeeper should never be beaten? Sure, Elche were 3-1 down and chasing the game in the 89th minute, so Dituro exposed himself by holding a high line outside his box, but without wanting to steal Guler’s thunder, the odds on somebody scoring with a shot from there should be infinitesimal. I know one person who won’t have been viewing it on repeat.
Around TAFC
- LAFC and Vancouver Whitecaps are four from four in the Western Conference of MLS, ticking along very nicely. Paul Tenorio has the verdict from the latest round of fixtures.
- Wrexham’s co-owners, Ryan Reynolds and Rob Mac, provided an alternative commentary for UK broadcaster Sky Sports during their Championship victory over Swansea City on Friday. As someone in the comment section here said, Snoop Dogg should have joined them for some Swansea balance.
- Jordan Campbell went behind the scenes with Motherwell (for my money, the team who have played the best football in the Scottish Premiership this season) during their 3-1 defeat to Celtic on Saturday. It’s fantastic and rare to get this level of access.
- Quiz question: Can you name the three men who have played 25 or more games for three different clubs in the Champions League (so, from the European Cup’s 1992-93 rebrand onwards)? Follow this link for the answers.
- Most clicked in Friday’s TAFC: What football really thinks of Arsenal.
Catch a match
Selected games (kick-offs ET/UK time)
Premier League: Brentford vs Wolverhampton Wanderers, 4pm/8pm — USA Network, Sky Sports.
Serie A: Cremonese vs Fiorentina, 3.45pm/7.45pm — CBS, Paramount+, Amazon Prime, Fubo, DAZN/DAZN.
And finally…
It’s only Monday, and already we’ve surely landed our favourite story of the week. It comes from a League Two game between Notts County and Chesterfield on Saturday, in which Notts County’s Oliver Norburn earned himself a red card… for throwing an opponent’s stray boot off the pitch. Just when you thought you’d seen it all.