It took a full 83 seconds for normality to resume, for logic to dictate and Manchester City to shake the shackles of bygone era that has no relation to the modern-day super power they have become.
Sergio Aguero’s equaliser after Glenn Murray headed Brighton into a first half lead and Liverpool into dreamland provided a short, sharp dose of reality from which they never looked back.
In truth, it was unfathomable that those supporters who travelled to the south coast, did so with butterflies in their bellies.
Pep Guardiola has assembled a team that doesn’t do nerves. It doesn’t do last gasp stumbles.
It doesn’t do heartbreak.
It is an unrelenting winning machine that has risen the bar of what it means to be English champions to the point where Jurgen Klopp’s Champions League finalists can amass 97 points and still come up agonisingly short.
Two seasons, 198 points and two thirds of the way to an unprecedented domestic treble, any fan who dares utter the phrase ‘typical City’ couldn’t be more out of touch with Guardiola’s magnificent champions.
They belong to a different time when City would find ever-new ways to make themselves the butt of the joke – the punchline for their rivals.
Yet those same old fears were palpable among an away section at the Amex that spent much of Sunday morning trying to concoct scenarios of the unlikeliest of failures.
Never mind a run that had seen City win all but one of their last 19 games in the Premier League.
Never mind a manager who has now won 26 trophies in 10 years with three different clubs.
Never mind opposition that had failed to win in nine straight games and had nothing to play for having already avoided relegation.
There was no reasonable argument to believe City wouldn’t win – and win handsomely against a Brighton side who went into the game a full 59 points adrift of their opponents.
Even at the end of a week that has been as dramatic as this, football’s ability to produce miracles can only stretch so far.
Yet after 27 minutes, with Liverpool leading against Wolves, Murray rose to meet a corner at the near post, heading past Ederson to bring painful memories of the past flooding back.
With the Amex rocking, ‘typical City’ might have crumbled.
But this is not ‘typical City.’
Aguero - scorer of THAT title-winning goal - swivelled and fired beneath the advancing Maty Ryan to restore parity and set Guardiola’s side on course for a second successive league crown.
There was a gap of 83 seconds between those goals – barely enough time for Anfield to celebrate news of City’s struggles.
The bubble was burst on Merseyside – and even Klopp must have known what was coming.
Aymeric Laporte headed City in front before half time – and when Riyad Mahrez made it 3-1 after the break, even the most pessimistic of Blues allowed themselves to celebrate.
Ilkay Gundogan rounded off the scoring with a 25-yard free-kick to complete the scoring.
Typical?
This extraordinary team are anything but.
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Line-ups
Brighton XI: Ryan, Saltor, Duffy, Dunk, Bernardo, Knockaert, Gross, Kayal, Bissouma, Jahanbakhsh, Murray
Subs: Bong, Locadia, Andone, Montoya, Button, Burn, Molumby
Man City XI: Ederson, Walker, Kompany, Laporte, Zinchenko, Bernardo Silva, Gundogan, Silva, Mahrez, Sterling, Aguero
Subs: Danilo, Stones, De Bruyne, Sane, Otamendi, Gabriel Jesus, Muric
Referee: Michael Oliver
