While his goal proved to be the all-important breakthrough strike against Everton, Viktor Gyokeres said that it was “amazing” to see Max Dowman become the Premier League’s youngest-ever goalscorer.
The Swedish striker came off the bench against the Toffees with the points in the balance, and with a minute left to play found himself in the perfect position to tap home the loose ball after Max’s cross was misjudged by Jordan Pickford.
Then as the seconds ticked away, Max sped away to seal a crucial victory and aged 16 years and 73 days wrote his name into the competition’s record books, and Viktor still can’t believe how young he is when he sees what his talent allows him to produce.
“When you see him play, you don't think that he's 16,” Viktor said post-match. “You don't think about it when he has the ball with the composure and the confidence he plays with. It's incredible - to see him score that goal was amazing.
“He's been developing. He got an injury and was out for a while so I didn't see him for a few months, but now he's back and he's playing still with the confidence that he did before. He makes a lot of right decisions when he comes on the pitch. He's an incredible and very good player.”
While Max’s record-breaking moment will live long in the memory, so will Viktor’s strike which lifted the roof off Emirates Stadium after 89 minutes of banging on the Toffees’ door, forcing the visitors to throw everyone forward for a last-gasp corner and paving the way for the Hale End product to make history.
It was Viktor’s 16th goal for us this season, and while it might have ended up being the easiest to score, it could prove to be the most vital as it grabbed us two extra points and maintain our lead over Manchester City.
Reflecting on his emotions, he said: “I feel good, it was a great ending. We enjoyed the last few minutes of the game. Of course, now it's a good feeling.
“It was a good place for the ball to arrive, for me just to be in the right spot. There was not so much work to do there, but to put it in the back of the net. Of course, it was an important goal. When the game is 0-0 that late, we needed to score to win the game, so it was nice.
“It's a very important win for us at this stage of the season. We haven't got a game in the Premier League for a few weeks now, so of course it was nice to get the win with that in mind as well. We still have a few games to go \[before the break\] but a lot of important ones.”
Copyright 2026 The Arsenal Football Club Limited. Permission to use quotations from this article is granted subject to appropriate credit being given to www.arsenal.com as the source.