Welcome to\u00a0The Briefing, where every Monday during this season The Athletic <\/em>will discuss three of the biggest questions to arise from the weekend\u2019s football.<\/p>\n This was the weekend when Arsenal went nine points clear at the top of the Premier League, when Bruno Fernandes put on another masterclass for Manchester United, when Chelsea slumped to another defeat, and when all of the teams battling relegation drew so nothing changed.<\/p>\n Here we will ask what another late goal conceded by Liverpool means for Arne Slot, whether Tottenham\u2019s point at Anfield will ultimately mean anything, and whether 16-year-old Max Dowman has taken Arsenal fans\u2019 anxiety away.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t know what happened, I have nothing to say. In the last minute, again, I don\u2019t know how many times this season already. I feel flat.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have to wake up because if we carry on like this, we should be happy with the Conference League. I don\u2019t know why this is happening, I honestly don\u2019t know.\u201d<\/p>\n Dominik Szoboszlai looked just as downcast as those words suggest when he was asked by Sky Sports for his reaction to Liverpool once again wasting an opportunity to collect points this season, after their 1-1 draw with Tottenham.<\/p>\n It would have seemed churlish to point out that makeshift right-back Szoboszlai\u2019s positioning was a big reason for Richarlison being unmarked to score the late equaliser. Particularly as the Hungarian scored his team\u2019s goal with his fourth direct free kick of the season, and more generally has probably been their best player.<\/p>\n But it wasn\u2019t just that they were defensively lax enough to concede; more that they hadn\u2019t killed Tottenham off well before that goal. Szoboszlai could have passed the ball to Richarlison himself and it wouldn\u2019t have mattered one bit had they taken one of the many chances to put the game beyond Tottenham.<\/p>\n There are a variety of issues with Liverpool this season, but the most glaring is that they simply keep conceding late goals.<\/p>\n In nine games they have let in 10 result-changing goals on or later than the 84th-minute mark (including two against Manchester City which turned a win into a loss). Those goals have cost them 13 points: add those to their current total and they\u2019d be second with 62 points.<\/p>\n Is this a mentality problem? Is it a fitness problem? Is it all a corollary of this collection of players simply not functioning together? Is it a problem with Arne Slot?<\/p>\n You could say that the first three of those questions come under the umbrella of the fourth: Slot is ultimately the man responsible, and while he got plenty of deserved credit for their title win last season, equally he must take the blame for their fairly abject defence of that title this season.<\/p>\n All of this is adding up to a sticky decision for Liverpool to make in the summer (especially if Liverpool fall out of the Champions League places, which is not inconceivable): do they decide they must continue with the manager who brought glory last season, or move on from the disappointment under him this season?<\/p>\n How much should change with one goal?<\/p>\n As Tottenham headed towards a narrow defeat at Liverpool, in some ways it felt like a worst-case scenario: they were going to lose, but not by a margin or in a fashion that would have forced them into accepting that the Igor Tudor experiment was a mistake.<\/p>\n Then Richarlison scored his equaliser, a point was won, and suddenly the mood was much more upbeat. This was Tottenham\u2019s best performance under their Croatian head coach, which is admittedly not saying a huge amount given the previous four included at least three abject humiliations. But the state of things at the club is such that they will take what they can.<\/p>\n \n Richarlison celebrates his goal (Photo: Carl Recine\/Getty Images)<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n So what has that goal changed? Do Tottenham as a collective feel better about life under Tudor now? Has Richarlison\u2019s equaliser improved the mood enough that something can be built upon it?<\/p>\n Ultimately, the question is, will this mean anything? In its most basic terms, they have not lost any ground on their relegation rivals because everyone else around them drew too. For a manager who was brought in for his instant impact, getting his first point in his fourth league game isn\u2019t ideal, but it\u2019s something.<\/p>\n \u201cWe hope,\u201d Tudor told the media after the game when asked if the result might give them a kick as they try to avoid an unthinkable relegation. \u201cIt\u2019s a long way to our goal, which is to stay in the Premier League, still a lot of games to play, but today was important to show what they showed, independently of the result.\u201d<\/p>\n They have a second leg against Atletico Madrid to negotiate next: they\u2019re extremely unlikely to overturn a 5-2 deficit, but another good performance, and maybe even a win on the night, will at least give some hope that domestic disaster might be averted.<\/p>\n Next weekend\u2019s game against Nottingham Forest remains colossal, but now Tottenham go into it knowing they\u2019re capable of a decent performance and result. But if they lose to Forest, then all the good work done at Anfield will be scuppered.<\/p>\n At points this season, you have feared that Arsenal fans have been too anxious to actually enjoy having the best team in the country.<\/p>\n Maybe that has changed. And maybe it\u2019s thanks to a kid who was nearly six years away from being born the last time Arsenal won the title.<\/p>\n The bare facts are that Arsenal would have beaten Everton on Saturday even if Max Dowman, at 16 years and 73 days old, hadn\u2019t become the youngest ever goalscorer in Premier League history.<\/p>\n But his goal goes beyond the bare facts of the game and Dowman\u2019s record.<\/p>\n Because Dowman scored a very specific type of goal; a type of goal that can mean just that little bit more to fans.<\/p>\n There\u2019s something about the clincher in a 2-0 win, when the opposition has been pressing for an equaliser with tension mounting as your slender lead starts to look precarious. A particular type of tension builds in that circumstance, especially when the opposition have a corner and you have to defend it, and then you go on the counterattack and score, and that tension is released in a brilliant moment of catharsis.<\/p>\n A brilliant cross and a brilliant goal to boot.<\/p>\n At just 16 years and 73 days old, Max Dowman came on and made a massive impact in Arsenal\u2019s thrilling late win over Everton. pic.twitter.com\/YqQurE21Vz<\/a><\/p>\nWill Arne Slot pay the price for Liverpool\u2019s many late concessions?<\/h2>\n
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<\/p>\nWhat will Richarlison\u2019s equaliser mean for Tottenham?<\/h2>\n
![\"Richarlison](\"https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/athletic\/uploads\/wp\/2026\/03\/15143143\/GettyImages-2266658882-scaled.jpg\")
<\/p>\nFinally, some relief for Arsenal fans?<\/h2>\n
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