Alex Keble

The slink inside, the shimmy, the stroke into the bottom corner, and just like that the weight of the world was lifted.

Watching the rapturous celebrations at the final whistle of Arsenal's 1-0 victory over Atletico Madrid at the Emirates stirred up a strange and unfamiliar feeling, the kind we have to find a German word for. Ah, that's it: freude.

Every Premier League title race must have a single moment that crystallises all that we've seen, not just to decide the destination but to summarise what the winners stand for and why it was their fate to be champions this year.

The FA Cup final has arrived and thoughts of the arches, the pageantry, the Wembley sunshine brings with it a warm, fuzzy glow. It hasn't always been like that.

A club defined by extraordinary waste and mismanagement consigned rightly to a mid-table finish has hired the most sought-after coach in world football: it's the coup of the century, maybe, or it's a sign Xabi Alonso isn't quite what he's made out to be.

When it actually happened - when the agony and the anger and the tension finally drained out of the body and Arsenal became champions - everything changed.

Whenever the definitive history of football is written, that line will rightfully take its place alongside “I am the Special One” as a moment that signified an earthquake in England.

Joao Palhinha's header pings off the post and straight back to him, so he throws a desperate straight leg at the ball and swipes it forward. It bounces off Jordan Pickford, trickles pathetically on its way, and just about crosses the line. Throughout the ten-second scramble time stands still, the air goes stale, and an entire stadium holds its breath. Then it exhales.

The Champions League final is just a bonus. No club in European football history has enjoyed the privilege of that statement until Arsenal, which

It was meant as a rallying cry and a way to claim ownership over a critique of Arsenal's playing style, but Declan Rice leading a chant of “Set-Piece FC” from atop the title-parade bus is really a foreboding; a bell that chimes for the end of an era and the beginning of something else.