Emirates Stadium Police
Emirates Stadium Police
Arsenal sit top of the Premier League table after a 1-0 win over Hull City on November 8, following straight after their first win at Anfield over Liverpool since 2012, and the results show how settled Mikel Arteta’s side has become.
That stability lets him bring Max Dowman, a 16-year-old advanced playmaker, through slowly, with Premier League and Champions League cameos and functional starts in the EFL Cup, where two goals and an assist from limited minutes have made the plan look easy so far. The algorithms that price young players have noticed, so transfer market values now reveal as much about context as talent.
The view from Anfield is less comfortable. Andoni Iraola is still moving Liverpool away from their old tactical structure, and Florian Wirtz, who arrived from Bayer Leverkusen in 2025 for £116m, plays as his advanced playmaker and shadow striker after a slow, heavily criticised first season.
At Manchester United, Andrey Santos has settled into a steady squad role with six Premier League appearances since leaving Chelsea, completing 93 to 94 per cent of his passes as a disciplined box-to-box or defensive midfielder. Alejandro Garnacho, an explosive, high-volume winger, also left Chelsea this summer for Aston Villa, and has played three Premier League minutes in almost two months.
What the November update shows
FootballTransfers’ November update captures all four situations, rating Dowman at about £55m, the world’s highest for a player under 18, while Wirtz has lost roughly £32m, Garnacho has fallen 25 per cent to about £25m, and Santos sits at about £48m.
Five players also joined the group rated above roughly £87m, including Chelsea’s Joao Pedro and Real Madrid’s Yan Diomande, a 19-year-old wide playmaker signed from RB Leipzig for a reported £109m. He has contributed to seven goals in eight games covering for the suspended Vinicius Junior, scoring against Villarreal, Sevilla and Leipzig.
Are transfer market values flattering Arsenal’s teenager?
👊 Youngest goalscorer in the Premier League 🏆 Youngest player to win the Premier League ⚽️ Youngest player in the Champions League Max Dowman. Record-breaker. https://t.co/Sfm8Ki7lsK
— Premier League (@premierleague)
Yes, and the number of accomplishments the young Dowman has achieved already shows why. His jump reflects the Arsenal effect more than his current ability, because models over-index on young attackers in high-possession systems. At about £55m, he looks like a bubble built on context rather than ready-made quality but there is no questions as a homegrown player he is going to worth a lot of money.
Wirtz shows the opposite flaw. The algorithm punishes Liverpool’s teething problems under Iraola, just as assists against Brentford and Brighton and a Champions League goal against Villarreal suggest his chemistry is arriving. Garnacho’s fall follows the same logic, since models treat an unsettled team as a lower ceiling for a winger.
Santos stings Chelsea, who sold him after a flurry of loans, while a direct rival now uses him to hold midfield possession. Diomande completes the picture. Staying above £87m is far easier in a Madrid squad of stars, where teammates’ gravity lets raw efficiency pass for positional mastery.
Arsenal should treat the £55m figure as a guide, not a sell signal, and keep building Dowman’s minutes and thereby his value.
Other top young English players who have increasing values
The turn. The run. The finish. The SIUUU! Liam Delap 👏 @NFFC https://t.co/JIftVfVfjF
— Premier League (@premierleague)
Ex Chelsea and Man City striker Liam Delap announced himself as a Nottingham Forest player after his stunning brace vs Man City this past weekend including the SIUUU a la CR7. Just watch the second net busting strike from Delap above which secured the win for Forest and moved them up the table to 16th on 9 points and pushed Man City down to 3rd on 21 points.
Delap’s goals were both sheer class and have launched the Oliver Glasner era at the City Ground in style. Ronaldo would have been delighted with both finishes.
The likes of Spurs and Manchester United will be kicking themselves that they did not secure the services of Delap who finished both his goals with aplomb and Chelsea may be regretting let Delap go so quickly
One right foot finish and one left foot finish on the counter attack from Delap vs Enzo Maresca’s Man City condemned the Cityzens to a 3rd consecutive Premier League loss. Morgan Gibbs-White deserves high praise for setting up Delap and surely it is just a matter of time before both make it into Thomas Tuchel’s England squads on a regular basis.
Delap looks like he could be the man to replace Harry Kane as England’s top striker when the legendary Kane decides to hang up his boots. Delap will surely soon be worth north of £75m given the shortage of strikers in general but particularly English strikers.