Right until the final seconds, an acute sense of jeopardy remained. Rarely has there been a Premier League game on which so much seemed to hang with so much of the season still left to play.
This was early-April yet it felt like the end of May. Everything on the line. From that point of view, it was a quite remarkable afternoon.
As we reached the final 15 or 20 minutes of the game, we waited for that moment that often comes in games like this. That moment when both coaches and both teams sub-consciously settle for what they have.