The Emirates Stadium crackled every time the ball arrived at Max Dowman's feet. Just like in the pre-season races of Arsenal, his teammates made a joint attempt to place it there. It is easy to understand why. The 15-year-old is a special talent.
Dowman became the second-jongest player in the Premier League history with his introduction to Leeds, a huge achievement in itself. But the most remarkable thing is that he, but also, the youngest player of Arsenal, again looked their most dangerous.
Leeds could not control him. The drip of the shoulder to win the late penalty from Arsenal has closed an exciting debut. One day of theater, of revelations, injuries and first goals, it was Dowman, a schoolboy for another four months for his 16th birthday, who stole the show.
“This is what we see every day in training,” smiled Mikel Arteta afterwards. However, it is something else to do it on this stage. “He is so convinced that he can go at the age of 15 and that it can deliver, which I have never seen in my life,” added the Arsenal manager.
Dowman is perhaps the most exciting academy product from Arsenal so far. He certainly seems uniquely ready for the step at his age. But in recent years he has just been the newest player of the club's production line.
Hale End continues to deliver.
In the final phase of Saturday's competition, Dowman was one of the three graduates of the Academy on the Field for Arsenal together with Ethan Nwaneri and Myles Lewis-Skelly, who are both already located at senior level, relative veterans at the age of 18.
Bukayo Saka, an inspiration for all three who have become a talismanic figure for the club and his youth arrangement, had previously scored the second goal before being forced. In a new signature Ebereechi Eze, a former Hale Ender was watching.
Eze is of course different, because he had to leave at the age of 13 to reach it at senior level. But his connected past makes his return all the more into the club's supporters. He was greeted on Saturday as a youth fan and a former Academy player.
In the MatchDay program, Josh Kroenke, the co-chairman of Arsenal, had spoken about the importance of binding Lewis-Skelly and Nwaneri to new contracts. “They know what it means to be arsenal,” he said. That also applies. The club is also woven in its DNA.
“It brings joy, it brings emotion,” said Arteta afterwards. He referred to the rise of Dowman, but the same can be applied to one of the club's academic products.
Their immediate relationship with the club and its supporters is of course only one part of their offer. Saka, Nwaneri, Lewis-Skelly and Dowman, carefully cherished by Arsenal since his youth, have added immense quality to the team without costs in transfer costs.
Dowman is only too young for a rating. A player cannot recommend transfer costs until he has signed his first professional contract after running 16. Everything that can wait for him.
But it is dizzying to think about the heights he could reach, and how much he could bring to a team that is already being judged as the world's second most valuable valuable valuable after that of Real Madrid.
Arsenal has put together a group of players worth £ 1.14 billion for transfer costs of a total of £ 826 million. No other Premier League even comes close to the generation of a team value compared to the costs.
It is largely due to their flowering academic products.
Saka is now appreciated at £ 129.3 million by transfer market and reflects his status as one of the world's best players. Only 23, he remains the jewel in the crown of the academy, his peak years that are still coming.
Nwaneri and Lewis-Skelly have a way to reach Saka's heights, but their processes, at the age of 18, are not uneven. The first is appreciated at £ 48 million; The last £ 39 million. The hope is that they will continue to grow and develop, and that Dowman will be the next.
The players and their families are of course the most important drivers in their success. Together they also reflect the excellent work of Academy Director per Mertesacker and the various coaches who supervised their progress by the age groups at Hale End.
But they also require a manager who wants to trust them and they have that in Arteta, whose close relationship with Mertesacker has contributed to the coordination between the academy and the senior side, which opened a clear path to the first team.
Since the start of last season, Arsenal has given more minutes to players aged 18 or younger than any other Premier League side. Even those Academy players who have moved, such as Emile Smith Rowe and Eddie Nketiah, have generated value by their sale.
Arteta has played an active role for a manager of the first team in meetings with players such as Nwaneri and Lewis-Skelly from a young age, long before they came to the senior team. But it has been since their promotions that their progress has really been accelerated.
It is partly due to the exposure, but the coaching of Arteta has also helped. Saka played at Full-Back when Arteta arrived at the club, but flourished like a right-sided way. Lewis-Skelly, formerly a central midfielder, was reinvented as the left.
It is still to be seen where the future of Dowman is in the long term. He has so far been used in the role of Saka, which cuts in from the right, on his left foot. But he can also play centrally, either as a no. 8 or no. 10.
The possibilities are tempting. It will of course have to be protected considering his age. Dowman is another year away from sitting his GCSEs. But it is clear that he has a role to play, even in the short term.
Events at the Emirates Stadium On Saturday were a memory that the Academy of Arsenal is the key to their present and their future.