Tottenham Hotspur’s season was 12 minutes from ending here at Selhurst Park when Christian Eriksen brilliantly kept it alive.

Spurs were heading for a 0-0 that would have been the only fair reflection of this drab flat match. One point would have left Spurs waking up on Thursday morning six points behind with five points left. They would have needed, at the bare minimum, for Antonio Conte’s side to lose two of those five games to have any chance of winning the title. It would have been the low-key end to their title run, far less dramatic and traumatic than last year’s blow-out at Stamford Bridge.

But that is not how it turned out, not in the end. Harry Kane, struggling for answers, passed the ball to Eriksen, in space 35 yards from goal. There was no obvious pass on so Eriksen touched the ball out in front of himself and whipped it right-footed towards the far bottom corner of the goal. Wayne Hennessey is a tall goalkeeper but he did not realise what was happening quickly enough and did not get down in time. His dive was too slow, the ball whistled past his outstretched arm and into the bottom corner of the net.

That is why Eriksen is known as ‘golazo’ at Spurs’ training ground. He is a creative genius, as he showed with his wonderful assist for Dele Alli at Wembley on Saturday, but he also has a gift for brilliant goals. It was a strike of audacity and precision, one that of all the players on the pitch, only Eriksen could have successfully scored.