There comes a point in every title race when the challengers frantically chase their ‘Steve Bruce moment’.

There were hundreds of last-minute winners by sides pursuing a championship before Bruce’s iconic header for Manchester United against Sheffield Wednesday in 1993 (watch below), and there have been many more since, but that classic has become a reference point.

Not all contenders with a portfolio of last-gasp wins go on to seal the title – members of the current Liverpool and Arsenal squad can testify to that having competed throughout the Manchester City era.

But it is rare for the eventual champions not to savour such delayed gratification during at least one mood-swinging 90 minutes – an afternoon where exasperation morphs into elation. We are not talking here about anything as dramatic as Sergio Agüero or Michael Thomas winning the league with the last kick of the season. The Bruce prototype applies earlier in a campaign, turbo-charging the frontrunners just as it looks like they are in danger of slowing down.

And 22 of the Premier League winners going back to 1993 can point to a specific game and particularly consequential last-minute goal in their victorious runs which – long before Jürgen Klopp made the phrase his own – turned the doubters into believers.

City can recall Oscar Bobb’s winner away at Newcastle United a year ago as critical to their fourth consecutive title.

In the preceding Premier League-winning campaigns, Fulham, West Ham United and Arsenal were all beaten with City goals after the 89th minute. And long before Agüero rewrote history in 2012, an injury-time Mario Balotelli penalty against Tottenham Hotspur in January that year convinced City fans their long title wait could soon be over.

Chelsea, Leicester City and Manchester United fans, who could write books about ‘Fergie time’, will also recall how late interventions built an unshakeable momentum whenever they became champions.

As Liverpool’s coach departed Brentford on Saturday evening, there was a feeling Darwin Núñez had given Arne Slot a gift of similar magnitude.

At Anfield, they will not reference Bruce and Manchester United, of course. Memories are still fresh of a fixture against Aston Villa in 2019 when Sadio Mané’s injury-time header gave Liverpool an advantage which they did not surrender. When the post-season video edits were produced to celebrate the first Liverpool title for 30 years, Mané’s goal was as monumental for the psychological impact it had had on the direct opponent. Liverpool left Villa Park that day with a six-point lead – the same they have today.

The difference then was Liverpool, like United in 1993, came from behind to snatch victory from defeat.

Nevertheless, as Brentford’s stadium announcer confirmed four minutes of injury time on Saturday, a third successive league draw for Slot’s side would have required an industrial-strength consignment of Brasso to apply a sheen. Another hiccup may have been perceived as a symptom of a more serious ailment.

Instead, Núñez struck and the instant impact could be measured beyond Brentford and across London.

Had Arsenal gone into their game with Aston Villa with the chance to reduce the deficit to two points, they may have found the extra impetus to do so.

The pre-match deflation upon hearing of Núñez’s double may not have hindered Arsenal’s performance to such an extent it led to their draw, but it was no help.

Should it be part of a Premier League-winning campaign, the photograph of Núñez removing his jersey and celebrating in front of the travelling supporters will be framed and hung in the club museum. The curator will, of course, be reluctant to schedule a May exhibition yet. Liverpool and Núñez have been here before.

Last March, Núñez headed a 99th-minute winner away at Nottingham Forest and the scenes were reminiscent of those this weekend.

They would have dedicated a chapter to Núñez’s goal in Liverpool’s story of Klopp’s final season had he lifted the title. Pride of place would also have been granted to another injury-time Núñez winner away at Newcastle United. Instead, they became footnotes and emblematic of Núñez’s Anfield career – occasionally spectacular but too infrequently building on his promise.

Núñez needs to ensure the foundations he is laying for himself and his team this season are not for a house of straw.

Virgil van Dijk, the Liverpool captain, is in no mood to declare Núñez’s winner a title game-changer yet. “Every win feels big. It doesn’t really matter if it is in the first minute or last minute,” he said, pragmatically.

But surely it carries extra emotional weight? “Well, obviously because of the hard work. The manner we kept going was very good, but a win is a win.”

The full-time celebrations and broader response to Arsenal’s slip a few hours later suggested otherwise. Every goal counts, but come May there are always a select few which history shows mean that much more.