There were still 26 minutes left when the child got up and walked to the touchline. A Smurk of excitement drove around the Emirates and then, then Max Dowman, 15 years and 235 days old, ran on the field, roaring of encouragement and pleasure followed him on the grasszel.
Arsenal was already 4-0 against Leeds United and the match was won, but Dowman and his youth and his promise and his ambition and his potential were symbols of optimism that flows through this club while putting his sights on ending his 22-year waiting time on the Premier League title.
You may think Dowman was just a cameo role, but what he did and what he meant for Arsenal here was much more important than that. From his place on the right wing, he ran to defenders, drew a mistake that Gabriel Gudmundson booked and won the added time penalty that Viktor Gyokeres gave his second goal of the game and sealed the 5-0 victory of Arsenal.
Dowman was also important for another reason. Arsenal lost both Captain Martin Odegaard and star player Bukayo Saka to injury during their routes. Nobody knows how serious the injuries are, but in each of the past years the title challenge of Arsenal may have ended against Leeds with the sight of Odegaard and Saka that slowly runs to the touch line.
In other seasons, Arsenal has not been able to ride those injuries and still bloom. This season it feels different. This season it feels like that losing Saka and Odegaard, but long, would be a blow. But it would also be far from insurmountable.
Arsenal now has a team that is bursting with talent. Before the competition, the new signature of the club of £ 67.5 million from Crystal Palace, Ebereechi Eze, was paraded on the field. If Saka is excluded from next weekend's crunch collision with Liverpool in Anfield in Anfield, what is a better player than Eze to get in?
If Odegaard has to miss a few games, well, Ethan Nwaneri, who was even younger than Dowman when he made his debut a few years ago, the brain and the craft and the ability to be a more than capable representative. He replaced Odegaard against Leeds and Arsenal did not miss a beat.
This is a team that is so full of talent that Myles Lewis-Skelly could not get into the starting line-up. There are those among us who believe that Lewis-Skelly is so good that he must always be in the starting line-up, but that is another matter. The point remains: Arsenal has coverage everywhere; It is difficult to distinguish between the first choice and the second choice.
There were also other positives. The brace of Gyokeres will arrange his nerves and focus on the striker that Arsenal has missed in recent seasons. Martin Zubimendi looked calm and stylish. David Raya made a brilliant salvation. Declan Rice was just as authoritative and dynamic as always.
For what it is worth, this victory placed Arsenal at the top of the table on target difference. We are two games in, but it would be no surprise to see them in the same place when 38 league games are completed. They may not be as inspired as Liverpool, but they may be more solid and more arranged. This Sunday gives us a better indication.
Arsenal subjected to Leeds to fierce pressure from the kick -off. Leeds did their best not to give them time on the ball and pressed them hard, but the quality of Arsenal still created opportunities. Ten minutes inside the rice drove a ball in the area. Saka, stumbling and falling, tried to fit the head it needed, but could not reach it completely. He got up and smiled in annoyance.
Five minutes later there were no smiles when Arsenal missed a gilded opportunity to take the lead. The perpetrator was Viktor Gyokeres, the new signing of Sporting Lisbon, who had such a quiet debut against Manchester United last week.
Leeds tried to play the ball from behind, but Martin Zubimendi was in an instant on Pascal Struijk and his tackle sent the ball to Gyokees. Gyokees was six meters out with only Lucas Perri to beat.
The moment screamed for some calmness, for the cold heart of a football killer, but Gyokees did not own it. He grabbed the chance in a panic and it squirted well wide. On the touchline, Arteta turned and held his head in his hands.
Arsenal suffered a blow eight minutes before the break when Martin Odegaard, who struggled with a shoulder injury that was sustained early in the game, was replaced. The blow was softened by the fact that he was replaced by a player who was as talented as Nwaneri. That is what this Arsenal team makes different this season. They have coverage everywhere.
To prove that point, they scored again when the first half stepped in time. Timber became the provider this time, slipped a pass in the full-back for Saka, who ran on it and took the high past Perri from a corner.
The biggest cheers of the evening came three minutes after the break when Gyokees ran a ball to the left, ran to Struijk, cut him and shot a shot past Perri to score his first goal for the club and his first in the Premier League.
The cheers was just as full of relief as delightfulness. Gyokeres is a productive striker, but a striker without trust is hardly a striker and his strike against Leeds and the claim that it unleashes will be closer to being the striker that Arsenal has been bought.
Saka was forced in the 53rd minute after he had pulled sharply at the end of a rising run, but Arsenal picked it up and got their fourth before the hour that wood forced the ball over the line after another corner caused chaos and confusion in the Leeds box.
Then Dowman came up and the Emirates glorified in his youth and in the fifth goal of their team and in the promise of a season that can bring pain to an end for 22 years.