There comes a time in every title race where challengers frantically pursue their “Steve Bruce moment.”
There were hundreds of last-minute championship-chasing team winners before Bruce’s iconic header for Manchester United against Sheffield Wednesday in 1993 (see below), and there have been many more since, but this classic has become a reference.
Not every contender with a portfolio of last-minute wins seals the title – members of the current Liverpool and Arsenal squad can attest to that having competed throughout the Manchester City era.
But it’s rare that future champions don’t savor such delayed gratification for at least 90 moody minutes – an afternoon where exasperation turns to elation. We’re not talking here about something as dramatic as Sergio Aguero or Michael Thomas winning the championship with the last kick of the season. Prototype Bruce applies himself earlier in a campaign, turbocharging favorites just when they seem in danger of slowing down.
And 22 of the Premier League winners since 1993 can point to a specific match and a particularly consequential last-minute goal in their winning runs that – long before Jürgen Klopp coined the phrase – turned skeptics into believers.
City remember Oscar Bobb’s winner at Newcastle United a year ago as vital to their fourth successive title.
In previous Premier League winning campaigns, Fulham, West Ham United and Arsenal were all beaten thanks to City goals after the 89th minute. And long before Agüero made history in 2012, an injury-time Mario Balotelli penalty against Tottenham Hotspur in January of that year had convinced City fans that their long title wait might soon be over.
Fans of Chelsea, Leicester City and Manchester United, who could write books on the ‘Fergie era’, will also remember how late interventions created unwavering momentum each time they became champions.
As the Liverpool manager left Brentford on Saturday evening, there was a sense that Darwin Núñez had given Arne Slot a gift of a similar magnitude.
At Anfield they will of course not refer to Bruce and Manchester United. Memories are still fresh of a match against Aston Villa in 2019 when Sadio Mané’s injury-time header gave Liverpool an advantage they did not relinquish. When the post-season video montages were made to celebrate Liverpool’s first title in 30 years, Mané’s goal was as monumental as the psychological impact it had on the direct opponent. Liverpool left Villa Park that day six points ahead – the same as today.
The difference then was that Liverpool, like United in 1993, came from behind to snatch victory from defeat.
Nonetheless, as the Brentford Stadium announcer confirmed four minutes of added time on Saturday, a third successive league draw for Slot’s side would have required an industrial-grade Brasso send-on to apply a burst. Another hiccup may have been seen as a symptom of a more serious illness.
Instead, Núñez struck and the instant impact could be measured beyond Brentford and across London.
If Arsenal had started their game against Aston Villa with the chance to reduce their deficit to two points, they might have found the extra impetus to do so.
The pre-match deflation at the news of Núñez’s brace may not have hampered Arsenal’s performance to the point of leading to a draw, but it didn’t help.
If it is a winning Premier League campaign, the photograph of Núñez taking off his shirt and celebrating in front of traveling supporters will be framed and hung in the club museum. The curator will of course be reluctant to schedule an exhibition in May. Liverpool and Núñez have been here before.
Last March, Núñez headed a 99th-minute winner at Nottingham Forest and the scenes were reminiscent of that weekend.
They would have dedicated a chapter to Núñez’s goal in the Liverpool story of Klopp’s final season had he won the title. Pride of place would also have gone to another injury-time winner from Núñez at Newcastle United. Instead, they have become footnotes and symbols of Núñez’s Anfield career – sometimes spectacular but too rarely delivered on its promise.
Núñez needs to make sure the foundation he lays for himself and his team this season isn’t a house of straws.
Virgil van Dijk, the Liverpool captain, is not yet in the mood to declare that Núñez’s winner will be a game-changer for the title. “Every victory is great. It doesn’t matter if it’s the first or the last minute,” he said pragmatically.
But surely that carries added emotional weight? “Well, obviously because of the hard work. The way we continued was very good, but a win is a win.
The full-time celebrations and wider response to Arsenal’s slip-up hours later suggested otherwise. Every goal matters, but in May there will always be a few that, as history shows, matter much more.