The smallest margins. That is what elite sport has always been about. The catch put down, the chance missed, the try scorer’s boot brushing the white line.
Yet these are also moments, cameos, in matches. What we are seeing in English football right now is titles, destinies, decided by minutiae over seasons, over entire campaigns. Chelsea and Liverpool have played each other in two finals this year, and in four matches overall. They cannot be separated. Not in open play.
In 420 minutes of football — seven hours, not including stoppage time, which probably adds another 20 minutes at least — there has been no winner.