EmailIf it had to end, this was as fitting and captivating a finale as any. Arsenal, untouchable for 30 league matches, are human after all, though they left Merseyside wondering whether the teenager who spoiled that record in a late blur was similarly of this world.
"He's supposed to be 16," Arsène Wenger winced in disbelief, his normally phlegmatic dead pan wrecked by Wayne Rooney.
The Frenchman's team have overcome all comers en route to establishing themselves as the best in the country but they could muster no resistance to the £80-a-week teenager's clever control and blistering 30-yard curler within 10 minutes of his entrance and 28 seconds from the end.
The attempt, audacious and delicious as it arced gracefully over David Seaman and in off the underside of the bar, took the breath and jostled the champions off the top of the table. Everton's deputy chairman and owner Bill Kenwright, a theatre impresario, had left with two minutes to go; so much for dramatic timing.
Rooney the apprentice becomes Rooney the professional on Thursday, a three-year contract with an option for two further years waiting to be signed on his birthday. David Moyes described that deal as "done and dusted", but it may be delayed for a week as the youngster plans to switch agents to Paul Stretford's Proactive Sports group.
Until that move is complete, his salary will rise by £10 as he turns 17. "When I came here I wanted to lay foundations at the club which wouldn't be knocked away and avoid what's happened in the past," said Moyes. "I understand the financial situation at this club but if I want to keep someone I'm confident the board will back me. Wayne's an Evertonian through and through and will probably be out with his pals this evening showing them how he scored the winner. There are special players. He can become one of them."
The sight of the 1998 Youth Cup winner Francis Jeffers, an old boy from the same De La Salle school, emerging from Arsenal's bench provided Evertonians with a reminder of young talent that has flown the nest.
Under the deal on offer, Rooney's wages would spiral from an initial basic £1,100-a-week plus bonuses to reflect the talent of the Premiership's youngest ever goalscorer. That title has been wrested by 149 days from Michael Owen (at 17 years and 144 days) across Stanley Park, merely adding to the sense of satisfaction.
"Owen's a complete striker but I didn't see him play at 16," said Wenger, who had watched as Rooney twisted, turned and looped another breathtaking attempt over in stoppage-time. "At that age, Rooney is already a complete footballer. The guy can play. He's the best English under-20 I've seen since I came here [in 1996]. He can play people in, he's clever and a natural, built like a Gascoigne with his low centre of gravity. And he can dribble - I like strikers who can dribble."
Rooney, born into a boxing family and who went to his first Everton game with his father, also Wayne, at the age of six months, netted eight times last season to propel Everton into the FA Youth Cup final.
He made his Everton Under-19 debut at 14, scored his first goal for them aged 15 and was called up for England Under-17s when he was 15. Already he is used to returning to the family's former council house in Croxteth - his younger brother Graham is a boxer who was once on Everton's books and the youngest, John, still is - to find increasingly lavish local press cuttings awaiting him. But his progress this season - eight goals in nine pre-season friendlies and two goals at Wrexham in the Worthington Cup, establishing him as Everton's youngest goalscorer and breaking Tommy Lawton's 65-year-old record - has seen that go national.
On Saturday he earned an affectionate pat on the head from Jeffers and a respectful handshake from Thierry Henry as the Gunners departed crestfallen. "If he can take Henry as a model, he'll go a long way," Wenger added. Yet, though Rooney provided the decisive intervention, this startling victory was earned as much by a zestful Everton performance as the youngster's winner.
Moyes's side tore at Arsenal, convinced in their ability to succeed, and were duly rewarded. Thomas Gravesen's dynamism matched that of Patrick Vieira and Gilberto Silva; the substitute Tobias Linderoth's effective suffocation of Vieira's leggy influence further stunted Arsenal's intent.
Gravesen played his part in Everton's equaliser - Arsenal having gone ahead through Freddie Ljungberg after a slip by David Weir - his diagonal run and pass prompting Lee Carsley to belt the ball against a post. It rebounded to the livewire Tomasz Radzinski, giving Pascal Cygan a torrid time, who stepped inside and hit his shot through a knot of players to equalise.
David Seaman could not be faulted for that goal and was recovering his poise after a decidedly dicey opening when Gravesen and Mark Pembridge peppered him with vicious inswinging corners. By the end he was diving to thwart the Dane, only to be undermined finally by Rooney.
"The defeat is significant, but we'll respond in the right way," added Wenger. "What we did for seven months [after a 1-0 defeat at Juventus] was the truth. What happened out there was not."
Apart, presumably, from Rooney.
Man of the match: Joseph Yobo (Everton)
