In the dying embers of a mighty struggle for Manchester City, Kevin de Bruyne dashed down the right flank before checking inside and playing a pass to Ilkay Gundogan.
And then, he did something he rarely does. He did not continue his participation in the home attack, standing and watching as Gundogan’s attempted assist bounced beyond Phil Foden. De Bruyne looked exhausted, his cheeks redder than normal, sucking in air. He had been utterly tireless in his leadership of City’s attempts to win this match after Joao Cancelo had been sent off less than half an hour into proceedings.
He had been constantly demanding the ball, constantly seeking to regain possession on the rare occasions City lost it. He defended when he had to, took set-pieces, rallied his team-mates when frustration began to set up.
And as the clock ticked into added time, De Bruyne looked spent, physically, if not mentally. But De Bruyne is not just a wonderful footballer, he has remarkable levels of energy, just like so many of this champion squad.
And when Antonee Robinson’s poor header fell into his vicinity, he summoned up one last drop of ingenuity.
He BOUGHT the match-winning penalty from Robinson with his sharp turn, he sucked the Fulham defender into a trap, took the tumble when the ankle tap arrived and Erling Haaland sealed the victory from the spot, albeit with a thoroughly unconvincing kick that Bernd Leno should have saved.
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Haaland took the acclaim - and there was plenty of it after a win that was celebrated with title-standard gusto by Guradiola - but it should have been shared by De Bruyne who had earlier plated up another for the Norwegian substitute only to see VAR cancel it out.
He is some player, some leader by example. And he needed to be, even though it all seemed to be going swimmingly in the early stages. For his work-rate, for his intelligent running, for his selflessness, Julian Alvarez is an identikit Guardiola player.
You can bet Pep had more involvement in the signing of the Argentinian than he did in the recruitment of Haaland - not he would have been anything other than ecstatic at centre-forward being on board.
It is just that Alvarez ticks every one of his manager’s boxes and can finish. We knew that from his scoring record in South America and we now know it from the velocity of his strike that bent Leno’s fingers before spinning home to give City a lead.
If anything, complacency is often the champions’ most difficult opponent and so it proved here. Complacency was not the root of Cancelo’s misdemeanour but it was the reason why Harry Wilson was allowed to break clear with a simple run.
Wilson was clever to make sure Cancelo made contact but it ended up an easy decision for Darren England to make. And once he had awarded the penalty - converted by Andreas Pereira - England had to dismiss Cancelo.
Conspiracy theorists inside the Etihad Stadium would have disagreed but it was pretty straightforward stuff. Cancelo should have left him alone, Wilson might have equalised but City would still have won easily.
City protests were only understandable in the sense that everyone protests everything in football. Of course, what the decision ensured was a far more even game than we would have had if it had remained eleven versus eleven.
Even with a man advantage and well over an hour to play, the bookmakers still only rated Fulham’s chances at 6-1. And they were not unreasonable odds because the fact is that Manchester City are a man better than most teams in the Premier League.
In most matches, ten versus eleven is fair.
So it proved here, City still dominating possession with a man disadvantage but even with Haaland and Foden in the mix, it still looked as if the brave eleven men of Fulham would hold on for a point. But as he so often does, Kevin de Bruyne had other ideas.
