If there were ever any doubt as to whether Vincent Kompany can still perform at the highest level for Manchester City, he proved it on Monday night. And then he scored the goal to ensure the Premier League title race remains in City's hands.
It was a third consecutive 90-minute league outing for the City captain at the most pivotal stage of the season to prove that there is, at full fitness, no finer or more consistent defender on Pep Guardiola's books.
Jamie Vardy, the Leicester striker, was supposed to highlight the supposed weaknesses in Kompany's game; a lack of pace, a rash tackle, the fragility of his imposing frame. But Vardy spent his evening at the Etihad firmly fastened in the Belgian's back pocket in a masterclass of how to defend against a quick forward.
And then came the strike. The iconic goal, surely, of Guardiola's reign to date. "I've scored goals like that in training," Kompany insisted, though you wonder quite how frequently a strike with such fervour and accuracy leaves his right foot.
It was the shot of a man with a point to prove; that he is still very much a world-class defender, that he is worthy of another year - at least - as the leader of the best Manchester City team in history. Few doubts can remain.
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There was a moment in the aftermath when Guardiola locked eyes on Kompany with a rye smile. "I thought, 'no shoot, no shoot'," the manager recalled. His leader, going off script, made the difference again.
Constant improvement has been Guardiola's message year-on-year and it is a wonder whether City's defence can become more water-tight without Kompany's involvement. John Stones, it is easy to forget, is still only 24. So too is Aymeric Laporte.
Nicolas Otamendi, 31, could leave this summer and if Kompany were to move on then Guardiola would be short of a senior centre-back with the battle-hardened experience of a career of more than five years at the very top. Hardly the foundation for a veritable assault on the Champions League.
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Kompany's concern is said to be a shortage of playing time in the next campaign but his involvement in this season's run in has been further evidence of how sorely his leadership and ability on the pitch would be missed.
'Desire, belief,' he surmised of Monday's night's contribution. "I didn't score this season but for me I always feel in big moments, in moments like this, that I'm going to do something.
"I don't know if it's a header, anything. I always feel I'm going to do something."
It's something City can't do without.
