LONDON – If I tell you that the internet died at the Emirates Stadium moments before Max Dowman put that cross in, does that make it feel even more like what followed was it? Arsenal demanded your absolute attention. This was their moment. You know the sort. Every title winner gets one – when hope leaps over faith and reaches certainty.

Marc Overmars at Old Trafford, Thierry Henry dancing through the Liverpool backline, that sort of thing. More appropriate for this season might, however, be Federico Macheda, the teen who turned the tide against Aston Villa in 2009. You suspect that Dowman, the youngest goalscorer in Premier League history, is destined for more than just a pub quiz curiosity.

Arsenal have already experienced flashes of a 16-year-old with talent and temperament beyond his years. A burst, a flash, a slaloming dribble that didn’t quite lead to a goal this time, but you knew it would before too long. Add a sense of timing to those prodigious qualities of his.

“I had a gut feeling that it was a moment for him,” said Arteta. “Probably because he doesn’t seem to be fazed by the occasion or the moment or the context or the opponent. He just plays so naturally. He makes decisions to make things happen, and what he delivered was incredible.”

If you want to know what a player untroubled by the moment looks like, just watch Dowman getting ready in the seconds before Arsenal unleashed chaos. As the doubts threatened to overwhelm Arsenal, he refused to panic. Checking onto his left foot, he assessed his options.

There were 85 seconds left of regular time, but Dowman would not be hurried. Piero Hincapie was aware of what was coming, a cross to the back post that flew over Jordan Pickford’s glove. Yet again, the ball found a way not to go in, bouncing off the Ecuadorian’s midriff and across the six-yard box…

This was Arsenal’s moment. This was Dowman’s moment.