LONDON — If Arsenal are going to hang around in the EFL Cup, this is the way to do it. No key men were risked, squad players got much-needed reps and Hale End’s finest made the right impression. That all this came with a berth in the quarterfinals of this competition makes it that fraction better.
Only a fraction, it should be said. While no team should turn their nose up at silverware, certainly not one who’ve been waiting more than half a decade to add to their sizeable cabinet, Arsenal’s ambitions must be greater. Put it this way, if at the end of the season Mikel Arteta had lifted the EFL Cup and nothing else, would the commentariat be rushing to praise him? Almost certainly not and he himself would feel like he had frittered away the advantageous situation his team find themselves in at the top of the Premier League table.
Four points clear and playing by far the most effective football in England, what Arsenal need from every other competition is that it does no harm to the biggest prizes. The last thing they want is the decimating of their attack that came about in the two-legged semifinal exit at Newcastle’s hands last season, Kai Havertz and Gabriel Martinelli suffering the sort of major injuries that killed off what little hope they had for 2024-25. They probably would not have won the title then but they might have in the spring of 2023 if only William Saliba and Takehiro Tomiyasu had made it through the Europa League exit at Sporting’s hands.
So much of what Arsenal have done since the end of last season has been about mitigating those sorts of moments. They are now two deep in every position and doesn’t it show? The XI that took the field tonight bore 10 changes from the side who had ground their way past Crystal Palace on Saturday afternoon. When they’re in Burnley this weekend, it would be no surprise if everyone bar Eberechi Eze drops out of the side. Even without the likes of Havertz, Noni Madueke, Gabriel Jesus and Gabriel Martinelli, this was still a team with a Bundesliga title-winning debutant, a captain who is a mainstay of Spain’s midfield and England’s starting left back.
All were mere supporting characters to the undisputed star. The roar before kickoff made clear how many were here for Max Dowman, at 15 years and 302 days, the youngest starter in the 138-year history of this club. Eight years old when Bukayo Saka made his debut, six when his manager called time on his playing career, a year and change when Arsenal lost to Birmingham in the final of this competition: every tidbit about Dowman is a dagger to the heart of anyone old enough to still be engaging with written media like this. Worst of all? He probably knows what six-seven means.
At least you didn’t have to play against him. That cannot have been a pleasant experience for Maxime De Cuyper, chasing shadows that should really be revising for their GCSEs. In true Hale End fashion, his shuffles sent him sliding through gaps that shouldn’t exist, his eye for a pass evidently preternatural. There was to be no goal or assist yet but there’s no rush, he’ll still be younger than current record holder Cesc Fabregas at the end of this season. On Wednesday’s evidence, there’s no reason not to aspire to that sort of career.
If you think that is placing too much on young shoulders, he seems to holding the burden quite comfortably. Asked how Dowman had reacted to being given his first start, Arteta said: “A tiny smile. That’s what you get from him. For him, everything is natural, everything is ok. It’s the way he plays, that’s the secret. He doesn’t make a big fuss, he just does what he does best, which is to play football with a lot of courage and determination. Today, he showed some incredible skill, some capacity to run past Premier League players at 15. It’s something special.”
The man whose record Dowman broke certainly did not look like yesterday’s man either. Ethan Nwaneri, 18, took time to get going but come the second half, he was doing what he does best: pushing play upfield and sweeping into dangerous positions. A smart flick by Mikel Merino, a well-placed pass by Myles Lewis-Skelly and Arsenal were cruising into the quarters. Saka would make certain of that, one of a string of established starters brought off the bench with a view to keeping the rhythm up.
By then, the players that needed minutes had gotten them. Christian Norgaard was rusty, but of course, he would be. Ben White was not, playing like someone who knows he has to be one of the best right backs in the world to have a chance of dislodging Jurrien Timber. Piero Hincapie was aggressive without the ball, precise with it: exactly what you’d expect from anyone in the Gabriel Magalhaes spot. Even Andre Harriman-Annous, a less heralded teenager, will feel he did his future prospects no harm with an energetic shift leading the line.
Arsenal have bigger fish to fry, and in reality, an exit at this stage of the competition would hardly be anything to disappoint Arteta. Winning, however, is never a bad thing, particularly when it can be done in a way that does no harm to the prospects of future victories when they really, really count.
