Arsenal strengthened its grip on the Premier League title race on the day its 16-year-old wonderkid, Max Dowman, scored a brilliant solo goal to become the competition’s youngest ever scorer.
After Arsenal relied on late goals by Viktor Gyokeres and Dowman to snatch a 2-0 home win over Everton, second-place Manchester City could only draw 1-1 at West Ham a few hours later Saturday.
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Newcastle United's Anthony Gordon scores their side's first goal of the game during the Premier League match between Chelsea and Newcastle, in London, Saturday March 14, 2026. (John Walton/PA via AP)
West Ham's Konstantinos Mavropanos celebrates scoring his side's first goal during the English Premier League soccer match between West Ham United and Manchester City in London, England, Saturday, March 14, 2026. (AP Photo/Dave Shopland)
Manchester City's Erling Haaland grimaces in pain during the English Premier League soccer match between West Ham United and Manchester City in London, England, Saturday, March 14, 2026. (AP Photo/Dave Shopland)
Arsenal's Max Dowman celebrates after scoring during the English Premier League soccer match between Arsenal and Everton in London, England, Saturday, March 14, 2026. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung)
Everton's Dwight McNeil shoots during the English Premier League soccer match between Arsenal and Everton in London, England, Saturday, March 14, 2026. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung)
Arsenal's Viktor Gyoekeres, left, and Max Dowman celevrate after a goal during the English Premier League soccer match between Arsenal and Everton in London, England, Saturday, March 14, 2026. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung)
Sunderland's Omar Alderete, left, and Brighton and Hove Albion's Danny Welbeck battle for the ball during the Premier League match in Sunderland, England, Saturday March 14, 2026. (Owen Humphreys/PA via AP)
Sunderland's Lutsharel Geertruida, left, and Brighton and Hove Albion's Yankuba Minteh fight for the ball during the Premier League match in Sunderland, England, Saturday March 14, 2026. (Owen Humphreys/PA via AP)
The lead grew to nine points on what might prove to be a defining day in Arsenal's bid for a first English league title since 2004.
It will certainly never be forgotten by Dowman, the school kid and surely a future superstar in English soccer.
At 16 years, 73 days, he changed the game after coming on in the second half for his third Premier League appearance in a breakthrough season that has already seen him become the youngest player in Champions League history.
It was his cross from the right that was missed by Everton goalkeeper Jordan Pickford and struck the midriff of Arsenal substitute Piero Hincapie. The ball bounced across the goalmouth and Gyokeres applied the finishing touch from close range.
Then, in the seventh minute of stoppage time, Dowman collected the ball midway in his own half after a corner was cleared, dribbled around two players, and raced clear to tap into an empty net. Everton goalkeeper Jordan Pickford was stranded upfield having gone up for the corner in search of an equalizer.
City couldn't match Arsenal, surrendering the lead given to Pep Guardiola's team by Bernardo Silva in the 31st minute. Four minutes later, Konstantinos Mavropanos headed home the equalizer at a corner.
It wraps up a tough week for City, which was beaten 3-0 by Real Madrid in the first leg of the Champions League's round of 16 on Wednesday.
Across London, Chelsea lost 1-0 to Newcastle thanks to an 18th-minute goal by Anthony Gordon.
Chelsea stayed in fifth place but could be overtaken by Liverpool, which hosts struggling Tottenham on Sunday.
Burnley is running out of time and hope in the Premier League.
A 0-0 home draw with Bournemouth on Saturday left next-to-last Burnley — one of the many U.S.-owned teams in England’s top division — eight points from safety with just eight games remaining this season and facing an immediate return to the Championship.
Burnley has won just four of its 30 league games.
Sunderland, another promoted team, appears to be safe from relegation but is limping toward the end of the season after a third straight home loss – this time to Brighton 1-0.
The only goal was a bizarre one, with Yankuba Minteh’s mis-hit cross from the byline somehow squeezing in at the near post in the 58th minute at the Stadium of Light.
Sunderland hadn’t lost at home until a defeat to Liverpool on Feb. 11. Since then, it has lost to Fulham and now Brighton.
Steve Douglas is at https://twitter.com/sdouglas80
AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer
Newcastle United's Anthony Gordon scores their side's first goal of the game during the Premier League match between Chelsea and Newcastle, in London, Saturday March 14, 2026. (John Walton/PA via AP)
West Ham's Konstantinos Mavropanos celebrates scoring his side's first goal during the English Premier League soccer match between West Ham United and Manchester City in London, England, Saturday, March 14, 2026. (AP Photo/Dave Shopland)
Manchester City's Erling Haaland grimaces in pain during the English Premier League soccer match between West Ham United and Manchester City in London, England, Saturday, March 14, 2026. (AP Photo/Dave Shopland)
Arsenal's Max Dowman celebrates after scoring during the English Premier League soccer match between Arsenal and Everton in London, England, Saturday, March 14, 2026. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung)
Everton's Dwight McNeil shoots during the English Premier League soccer match between Arsenal and Everton in London, England, Saturday, March 14, 2026. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung)
Arsenal's Viktor Gyoekeres, left, and Max Dowman celevrate after a goal during the English Premier League soccer match between Arsenal and Everton in London, England, Saturday, March 14, 2026. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung)
Sunderland's Omar Alderete, left, and Brighton and Hove Albion's Danny Welbeck battle for the ball during the Premier League match in Sunderland, England, Saturday March 14, 2026. (Owen Humphreys/PA via AP)
Sunderland's Lutsharel Geertruida, left, and Brighton and Hove Albion's Yankuba Minteh fight for the ball during the Premier League match in Sunderland, England, Saturday March 14, 2026. (Owen Humphreys/PA via AP)
PARIS (AP) — Activists worldwide held May Day rallies and street protests Friday, calling for peace, higher wages and better working conditions as many workers grapple with rising energy costs and shrinking purchasing power tied to the Iran war.
May 1 is a public holiday in many countries to mark International Workers’ Day, or Labor Day, when workers’ unions traditionally rally around wages, pensions, inequality and broader political issues. Demonstrations were held from Seoul, Sydney and Jakarta to many European capitals. In the U.S., activists opposing President Donald Trump’s policies also were holding marches and boycotts.
“Working people refuse to pay the price for Donald Trump’s war in the Middle East,” the European Trade Union Confederation, which represents 93 trade union organizations in 41 European countries, said. “Today’s rallies show working people will not stand by and see their jobs and living standards destroyed.”
What to know about May Day:
Rising living costs linked to the conflict in the Middle East emerged as a key theme in Friday’s rallies.
In the Philippine capital, Manila, large crowds denounced the U.S. role in the Iran war. Protesters clashed with police blocking the way near the U.S. Embassy.
Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto joined a rally in Jakarta where workers called for stronger government protection from rising prices and difficulties in finding raw materials for key industries.
On a main avenue in Casablanca, Morocco’s largest city, taxi drivers honked their horns and bus drivers parked their vehicles to protest rising fuel costs.
“All my expenses have gone up, but my wages haven’t budged,” Akherraz Lhachimi of the Moroccan Labor Union said.
Turkish authorities in Istanbul detained hundreds of demonstrators for attempting to march in areas declared off-limits on security grounds, most notably central Taksim Square, the epicenter of 2013 protests. May Day rallies in Turkey are frequently marred by clashes with authorities.
Tens of thousands of people crowded into a public square across from the U.S. Embassy in Havana, celebrating Cuba's workers and decrying U.S. sanctions. Many held banners that read, “Down with Imperialism” and “U.S. hands off Cuba.” President Miguel Díaz-Canel and former President Raúl Castro attended the event.
Several rallies were staged in South Africa, where the head of the Congress of South African Trade Unions, Zingiswa Losi, said workers were “suffocating” under rising costs of food, electricity, transport and healthcare.
May Day carries special meaning this year in France, after a heated debate about whether employees should be allowed to work on the country’s most protected public holiday — the only day when most employees have a mandatory paid day off.
Almost all businesses, shops and malls are closed, and only essential sectors such as hospitals, transport and hotels are exempt. A recent parliamentary proposal to expand work on the day prompted major outcry from unions and left-leaning politicians.
“Don’t touch May Day,” unions said in a joint statement.
Tens of thousands of people joined marches across the country, including in Paris, where brief scuffles with police broke out.
“May 1 is not just any day,” Small and Medium-sized Businesses Minister Serge Papin said. “It symbolizes social gains stemming from a century of building social rules that have led to the labor code we know in France. It is indeed a special day.”
In the United States, where May Day is not a federal holiday, May Day Strong, a coalition of activist groups and labor unions, called on people to protest under the banner of “workers over billionaires.”
Voicing strong opposition to Trump's policies, organizers listed thousands of May Day actions across the country and called for an economic blackout through “no school, no work, no shopping.”
Demands include taxing the rich and putting an end to the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown.
While labor and immigrant rights are historically intertwined, the focus of May Day rallies in the U.S. shifted to immigration in 2006. That’s when roughly 1 million people, including nearly half a million in Chicago alone, took to the streets to protest federal legislation that would have made living in the U.S. without legal permission a felony.
May Day, or International Workers’ Day, traces back more than a century to a pivotal period in U.S. labor history.
In the 1880s, unions pushed for an eight-hour workday. A Chicago rally in May 1886 turned deadly when a bomb exploded and police responded with gunfire. Several labor activists — most of them immigrants — were convicted of conspiracy and other charges; four were executed.
Unions later designated May 1 to honor workers. A monument in Chicago’s Haymarket Square commemorates them with the inscription: “Dedicated to all workers of the world.”
Associated Press journalists Barry Hatton in Lisbon, Portugal, Giada Zampano in Rome, Munir Ahmed in Islamabad, Niniek Karmini in Jakarta, Indonesia, Jim Gomez in Manila, Philippines, Cinar Kiper in Istanbul, Turkey, Akram Oubachir in Casablanca, Morocco, and Dánica Coto in Havana contributed to this report.
Protesters march during the May Day demonstration in Paris, Friday, May 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Aurelien Morissard)
An union member is detained by a Turkish police officer as people try to march towards Taksim square in Istanbul, Turkey, Friday, May 1, 2026, during Labor Day celebrations. (AP Photo/Khalil Hamra)
Members of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions stage a rally on May Day in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, May 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)
Members of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions stage a rally on May Day in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, May 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)
Union members scuffle with Turkish police officers as they try to march towards Taksim square in Istanbul, Turkey, Friday, May 1, 2026, during Labor Day celebrations. (AP Photo/Khalil Hamra)
Union members carefully step through rain-formed puddles to participate in a May Day rally in the rain Friday, May 1, 2026, in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)
People march to mark International Workers' Day, also known as May Day, in Sydney, Friday, May 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Rick Rycroft)
People march to mark International Workers' Day, also known as May Day, in Sydney, Friday, May 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Rick Rycroft)
FILE - Activist and workers raise their clenched fists during a May Day rally in Manila, Philippines, May 1, 2025. (AP Photo/Aaron Favila, File)
Laborers protest during a May Day demonstration in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Thursday, April 30, 2026. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)
Laborers hold flares during a May Day demonstration in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Thursday, April 30, 2026. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)
Members of trade unions take part in a rally a day ahead of the International Labor Day, in Karachi, Pakistan, Thursday, April 30, 2026. The banner in center reading as 'red salute to the martyrs of Chicago and the struggle will continue until economic exploitation is ended' (AP Photo/Ali Raza)
Members of trade unions take part in a rally a day ahead of the International Labor Day, in Karachi, Pakistan, Thursday, April 30, 2026. (AP Photo/Ali Raza)
