Teenager Max Dowman's double lights up Arsenal's Carabao Cup win over Ipswich
Arsenal's Max Dowman (right) celebrates scoring their side's third goal. Pic: Joe Giddens/PA Wire.
A banner commemorating Ipswich Town’s 1978 FA Cup Final win over Arsenal is the first sign you see on the way from the station to Portman Road.
A monumental achievement against the odds and rightly still celebrated.
That Arsenal have won the Cup ten times since then and that teenager Max Dowman, by far the outstanding player here, was not born until over 38 years after that Wembley wonder, is an illustration of how differently the clubs have progressed.
They are both in the top flight again, and respective managers Gary O’Neil (ten) and Mikel Arteta (nine) made wholesale changes to their starting line-ups (nine) in deference to weekend Premier League fixtures.
That is where the similarities end.
Arsenal were led out by three Spain internationals, including two World Cup winners in Mikel Merino, captain for the night, and Martin Zubimendi sandwiching Kepa, the world’s most expensive keeper.
An error by Kepa was deemed to have cost Arsenal last season’s final in the competition, even though they were comprehensively outplayed by serial League Cup winners Manchester City.
Arteta was outwitted by Pep Guardiola on the touchline, and his players were outplayed on the pitch.
It hurt to the extent that the Spanish coach would not dream of throwing a competition they have not won since 1993.
And any fears they might fall at their first hurdle against their in-form Suffolk hosts were dispelled after about six minutes when Dowman controlled a short pass from Eberechi Eze and slalomed through the Ipswich defence before scoring with his.
Mesmerising stuff from the 16-year-old, made even more impressive that they were his first six minutes of first-team action this season.
Born not too far away in Chelmsford, Dowman was unplayable at times and had the impressively large contingent of travelling Arsenal fans in good voice throughout. He turns 17 on New Year’s Eve.
Noni Madueke had his club’s supporters jumping up again when he volleyed in a second goal less than ten minutes later after Bruno Guimaraes broke an Ipswich break and Merino played the loose ball to the England winger on the edge of the area.
Dowman scored Arsenal’s third of the night and the third of his senior career barely a minute into the second half, with Zubimendi gaining the credit for setting him up from eight yards out.
The only player who had managed to stop Dowman was Kasey McAteer and he was booked for tripping the too fleet-footed roving forward as he threatened to lead another assault on the Ipswich goal.
So dominant were Arsenal, they barely bothered celebrating Merino’s superbly taken 58th-minute goal, a curler from just outside the area in off a post.
The Arsenal fans made the most of it by bringing out the ‘olé’s’ every time an Ipswich player strung a pass together.
Almost in fear of further humiliation, O’Neil’s side raided their game a level and pulled one back through Anis Mehmeti in the 62nd minute.
‘You’re not Tottenham in disguise’ chanted the Arsenal fans followed by ‘you’ve scored one more than Tottenham.’ Even the Ipswich supporters applauded that one.
After thumping Manchester City in the Community Shield, four straight Premier League wins and a Champions League victory in Napoli, this trip to old foes Ipswich ticked another box for Arteta and his players.
And with no obvious new injuries for Arsenal going into Saturday’s testing match away to Brighton, their last match before an extended international break, they are 90 minutes away from a near-perfect start to the season and their mission to defend the title for the first time since they last did it in the1930s.
Former Arsenal Double winner Emmanuel Petit tipped Arsenal to challenge for the Quadruple ahead of kick-off and so far his tip stands firm, however unlikely that sounds. Either way, they are in Wednesday night’s draw as one of the favourites.
And all corners of the ground were cheering when Ipswich grabbed a second goal, through substitute Chuba Akpom in time added on at the end.
Why, you wonder? Akpom is a graduate of Arsenal’s Hale End academy and was cheered to chants by Arsenal fans of ‘Chuba Akpom, he’s one of our own.’
Hugely entertaining night, on and off the pitch and a good advert for maintaining this competition in an overcrowded football calendar.
Walton 5, Furlong 5, Kipre 6, Greaves 6, Ouattara 6 (Davis 68), Florentino 6 (Lukic 81), Nunez 6, McAteer 5 (Egeli 69), Mehmeti 6, Philogene 5 (Clarke 61), Flemming 6 (Akpom 61).
Arrizabalaga 6, Zubimendi 7 (Ibrahim 85), Salmon 5, Gabriel 7 (Konsa 46), Lewis-Skelly 7, Merino 7, Guimaraes 7 (Julienne 64), Dowman 9, Madueke 7 (Odegaard 76), Eze 5 (Tzolis 76), Gyokeres 5.
Sam Barrott 6
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