When Katie McCabe's penalty kick went wide of the post, Jonas Eidevall knew the game was up.
Three of the four corners at Kingsmeadow erupted after an hours play on Sunday, while the previously lively away end fell silent. With one kick of a football Arsenal's title push for 2022-23 was finally consigned to the dustbin.
McCabe's poor spot-kick was part of a crazy few minutes that summed up their luck, or lack of it against WSL champions elect Chelsea. Caitlin Foord also managed to hit the crossbar from only yards out when it seemed easier to score, while Stina Blackstenius lost her footing just as the Gunners were building another dangerous attack.
Within the blink of an eye a title hunt that refused to go away despite suffering every piece of rotten luck possible, was finally gone. It will have hurt seeing Chelsea fans erupt at full-time as they march towards a fourth straight league title.
But for Arsenal, this is not a season of failure - far from it. They are certain to finish in the top three, in a Champions League spot. Given they have lost four key players to ACL injuries and suffered numerous other fitness issues throughout the campaign, that is nothing short of a miracle.
"I have had no delusions about this season, it has been tough with injuries," Eidevall said. "And my mindset is we need to do everything in every single minute to finish as high as possible. Nothing changes with this result.
"I know the title is out of our hands now, but looking back (on the season) there have been some really really fine margins with these points. Those margins and details matter a lot. But we'll learn from them.
"The injuries are one factor of course. Player availability is a really important KPI of course. But we also know with the amount of games and competitiveness is not going to be less, we need a deeper squad. It is one of the things we need to improve."
This was a year the Arsenal lost England's Beth Mead to a season-ending ACL as early as November, played nearly two months without first-choice central defenders Leah Williamson and Rafaelle, and then saw Vivianne Miedema, arguably their best player, also suffer an ACL. This was the year this all took place before Christmas.
Eidevall was rarely able to put out a consistent XI, with another injury never far around the corner. Captain Kim Little's hamstring issue picked up in a thrilling win over Bayern ended her season prematurely.
Then just when you thought things couldn't get any worse Williamson and Laura Weinroither also suffered ACL's as the season reached the business end. And yet their fans still packed out the away end at Chelsea, providing colour and constant noise. This was over an hour before kick-off, for a Sunday lunchtime kick-off, nothing short of remarkable support.
For them to still have some hope left that they could yet win the league or at least deny Chelsea another title, speaks volumes of the job done by Eidevall. Emma Hayes will probably take the Manager of the Year award should the Blues finish the job against Reading on the final day of the season and no-one could argue she isn't a deserving recipient.
But Arsenal's Swedish coach fully deserves his place on the nominations list and can't be far behind her. He has never allowed this team to use their misfortune as an excuse, far from it.
Eidevall is solution focused - a phrase often heard at his press conferences - and has come up with an alternative 3-4-3 tactical set-up to counteract availability issues. A system that took them within minutes of a penalty shootout that could have sent them to the Champions League final.
As he said himself, it's a game of fine margins. Providing Arsenal do seal third against Aston Villa next week, and they will do so barring a mathematical miracle, their fans should be positive ahead of next season.
They will play in Europe again with more big nights at the Emirates Stadium, like when nearly 60,000 crammed in against Wolfsburg for the semi-final second leg earlier this month. Not that Eidevall will be taking his eye off the ball at home either.
"All the teams are going to continue to invest," Eidevall added. "I don’t think we can assume that next season will be the same, it’s about next season and it will be important to have as strong a squad as possible.
"But that is what we are aiming for and building for. I am confident we can be competitive next season - we're aiming to have a strong squad."
With two years in England under his belt and with greater strength in depth across the pitch, there is no reason Arsenal can't once again challenge for major silverware next season. But this group should also be allowed to look back and be proud of what they have achieved this year; Conti Cup winners, last four in Europe and Champions League qualification for next year.
Not that Eidevall will be allowing any time for that, at least until after the final whistle against Villa next week.
"I never thought next Saturday’s game won’t mean anything," he added. "Let's finish the season strongly."
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