Perhaps Gary Neville put it best in his commentary role from the television gantry: “Where do you want your statue, Vincent Kompany?” It was, without question, the goal of a lifetime from the Manchester City captain and the rewards will be measured in silver if his team can extend their winning 13-game sequence by just one more match. It is simple now: a win at Brighton on Sunday and there will be nothing Liverpool, a point behind in second position, can do about it.

No wonder every single player made a beeline for Kompany at the final whistle. One by one they embraced the Belgian. They were soon joined by the substitutes, various members of Pep Guardiola’s coaching staff and the tracksuited players who were not in the squad. Everyone went to the same player. And then it was Guardiola’s turn, with a bear hug for the man who may just have struck the decisive blow at the top of the table.

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Kompany might not get a statue – not yet, anyway – but his fourth championship winner’s medal from his 11 years at the club would make up for that, one imagines, and, if the trophy does remain in Manchester, there can be no doubt how people will remember the defining moment of the title race.

There were 70 minutes on the clock when Kompany took possession of the ball and started loping forwards. Nobody in a Leicester shirt went to close him down because, well, it was Vincent Kompany, and he was not going to shoot, was he? Yet they underestimated him. Kompany took the ball into striking range and pulled back his right foot to take aim. It was a mix of desperation and inspiration, all in one. His shot was still rising as it flew past Kasper Schmeichel into what is known, in the parlance of the sport, as the “postage stamp”, just beneath the crossbar at its join with the post.

It was the 100th home goal City have scored in all competitions this season. Brilliantly it was the first time Kompany had tried a shot from outside the penalty area since 2013. Sergio Agüero later told Kompany he had been shouting for him not to shoot. “Everyone was telling me the same,” Kompany clarified. Yet the ball was struck with curve and spin so it was arcing away from Schmeichel. It was struck majestically. And in that moment, amid all the euphoria and the unmistakable feeling we were watching the champions-in-waiting, suddenly it did not seem to matter it had been such a stodgy performance from Guardiola’s team.

Kompany certainly knew the significance of that goal: he was in tears as he walked round the pitch at the end to thank the crowd for their backing. He and his teammates had toyed with the emotions of those supporters. It was anything but straightforward for the reigning champions and, until Kompany decided to take matters into his own hands, it was shaping up to be a potentially calamitous evening.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Pep Guardiola and Vincent Kompany embrace after the match. Photograph: Martin Rickett/PA

It still might have been but for Kelechi Iheanacho, their former player, squandering Leicester’s outstanding chance of the night, three minutes from the end of normal time. Iheanacho was clean through on goal, with the ball on his favoured left foot, after Hamza Choudhury had picked out his run and, for a split-second, there was a pained silence inside the stadium as everyone waited to see where his shot would end up. It was not even close and, 40 miles or so away on Merseyside, a devastating miss for the Liverpool supporters watching on television.

Leicester had been difficult opponents for a team defending the league title. Guardiola’s team are never quite the same when they are missing Kevin De Bruyne. Fernandinho was also on the list of notable absentees and early on, when an onslaught might have been anticipated, it did not happen. The crowd was flat, twitchy, waiting for something to materialise. The players were flat, too, with the honourable exception of Bernardo Silva, who seemed utterly determined to lift everyone around him.

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By half-time, there had been only one occasion when Schmeichel had been seriously called into action. Agüero’s header had struck the underside of the crossbar, direct from a corner, but could conceivably have spun over the goal-line had it not been for Schmeichel, mid-air, clawing the ball away.

Leicester looked relatively comfortable otherwise, as well as being lively on the break, and though the home crowd occasionally took out its frustration on the officials, it would not have been out of the question for the referee, Mike Dean, to show David Silva, of all people, two yellow cards, rather than just one, in that period. Kompany escaped with a booking for a wild challenge on James Maddison and that, again, demonstrated how the home side were not playing with their usual control.

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Something had to change if the players in light blue were not to blow the league title. Guardiola removed Phil Foden in the 56th minute, bringing on Leroy Sané, and that meant the team operating in a 4-2-4 formation. The full-backs, Kyle Walker and Oleksandr Zinchenko, had the licence to power forward and gradually it became the kind of match that might have been expected earlier on: one side doing virtually all the attacking, the other pinned back.

Even then Leicester still had promising moments on the counterattack, not least when Harry Maguire’s run from defence led to Maddison firing narrowly wide from 20 yards. Schmeichel saved again from Agüero but the home side’s momentum was building. Then the ball was at Kompany’s feet and, in that moment, he produced the reminder that big players like to contribute big moments.

Kompany has provided plenty of them over the years but this one was the pick of the lot. He will never strike a sweeter shot. It will never be forgotten here if it is followed up by another victory this weekend and afterwards Guardiola was asked if he knew his captain was capable of hitting the ball so well. “Honestly?” the manager replied, and his face gave away the true answer.