Twenty-one years, seven months and two days after it began with a 2-0 win over Blackburn Rovers – the Arsène Wenger era is over.
After 1,235 matches, 716 victories, 2,298 goals, three league titles, a record seven FA Cups – and not forgetting the longest unbeaten run in English football league history – the most extraordinary, most successful and most transformative reign of any manager in Arsenal history has come to an end.
So this apparently run-of-the-mill fixture instead became a chance for the travelling fans to say a final farewell to a truly unique manager, coming to the end of a gloriously unique period of the club's history.