Last weekend's win over Everton felt like the moment in Arsenal's Premier League title bid, with Max Dowman's solo clincher likely to be looked back upon as arguably the highlight of the Gunners' campaign.
A man, well more like a boy still yet to take his GCSE's, produced a display of breathtaking individual brilliance, just as he had done a week earlier in the FA Cup clash at Mansfield Town.
On a bobbly, mud-ridden pitch, the 16-year-old was mesmeric in that 2-1 win, putting his more senior colleagues to shame with the level of his performance on the day.
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A sense of calm may be needed for one so young, although the train has already left the station. A World Cup place, anyone?
What Thomas Tuchel has said about Dowman's World Cup hopes
It may seem ridiculous to suggest that a player who has only just notched his first Premier League goal could be in with a shout of a World Cup spot, with the teenager having not gone beyond England's U19 side thus far.
There would certainly be fears of a Theo Walcott repeat in some sense, with the ex-Arsenal man having memorably been called up by Sven Goran-Eriksson for the 2006 edition, despite having never played in the top-flight by that stage.
Dowman is certainly different in that respect, while it is hard to ignore his impact in that win over the Toffees, having supplied the cross that led to Viktor Gyokeres' opener.
With club colleagues Bukayo Saka and Noni Madueke currently vying for the right-wing berth in Tuchel's side, and with a raft of players already in contention in the number ten role, Dowman's route to the United States still seems littered with obstacles.
Even so, at a time when Tuchel - who is set to stay at the helm until Euro 2028 - could have quietened the noise somewhat, he has actually added fuel to the fire, despite not selecting the Hale End graduate in his 35-man squad for the upcoming March friendlies.
Youngest goalscorers in Premier League history (Dowman, Vaughan timeless)
Speaking in his press conference on Friday, the German coach didn't shut down the suggestion of a World Cup place for the teen sensation:
“He’s a fantastic talent. We still have a chance to call him for the World Cup. At the moment he competes for minutes so he’s not a regular starter for Arsenal. He is in the best environment possible, he has to keep going”.
Regardless of what occurs on the international level, he looks set to be Arsenal's poster boy for the present and future, with a changing of the guard underway at the Emirates.
Arsenal must sell £30m star who was a bigger wonderkid than Dowman
The fear for the rest of the Premier League is that this Arsenal machine is only just getting started, with the likes of Myles Lewis-Skelly, Ethan Nwaneri and now Dowman also ready to usurp the senior members of the squad later down the line.
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In Dowman's case, he may well rival Saka down the right flank, although his long-term future could lie as Martin Odegaard's successor in the centre, with the Norwegian a man who knows all about the bright lights of being a teen wonderkid.
It is easy to forget just how highly-rated Odegaard was in his youth, more so than even Dowman, having made his senior debut at the age of 15 for Stromsgodset back in 2014, while even making his senior international debut before turning 16.
Odegaard vs Dowman
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This was a player whom every elite club in Europe wanted to sign at the time. You name it, they were in for him, although after lengthy speculation, it was Real Madrid who secured the playmaker's signature in 2015, with the now Arsenal skipper having still been only 16 at the time.
He truly was a phenomenon, with comparisons having been made between the Scandinavian sensation and Barcelona's Lionel Messi, ahead of his move to Madrid.
What followed was something of a lesson to both Dowman and Arsenal, with Odegaard unable to or perhaps not afforded the chance to live up to the hype, spending much of his time in Spain with Real Madrid Castilla, while also embarking on a string of loan spells.
The last of those was to join Arsenal in January 2021, before signing permanently on a £30m deal that summer, with the balletic talent swiftly quashing the suggestion that he would never fulfil his sky-high potential.
That being said, after the highs of 2022/23 and 2023/24, in which he racked up 41 Premier League goal involvements combined, Odegaard has somewhat fallen by the wayside since then.
Hampered by injury, even when he has featured the 27-year-old's impact has waned, with the true leaders in the side now that of Declan Rice, Gabriel and David Raya.
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In truth, Arteta's men are marching to the title almost without him, and with Eberechi Eze hitting his stride, alongside the emergence of Dowman, even Odegaard's future at the club can no longer be secure.
If it means freeing up a pathway for Dowman to flourish, then selling the skipper, as brutal as it sounds, might be the best course of action this summer.
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