Mark Noble’s farewell defuses drama of Manchester City’s title defence

End-of-season games often have a slightly curious dynamic, a sense of being played at cross-purposes. On the one hand, there was Manchester City battling for the win as they pursue a fourth league title in five years. On the other, West Ham basking in the knockings of a season well done and determined to celebrate the final home game of one of their greatest recent players, Mark Noble.

When Noble came on with quarter of an hour remaining, what did that mean? He had played just 308 league minutes previously this season. Would he have come on had this not been his grand farewell? Does it matter? Would Liverpool fans who, if social media was anything to go by, were bizarrely aggrieved by the VAR award of an obvious penalty, have been aggrieved that West Ham in effect turned the final quarter of an hour into a testimonial?

As it was, with Lukasz Fabianski saving that Riyad Mahrez penalty, the score remained 2-2, meaning that there is still life in the Premier League title race, that there remains the possibility that Steven Gerrard could at last win Liverpool a league title by leading his Aston Villa side to a point or better at the Etihad next weekend. But the Noble factor shaped the game. This was, after all, as the pitchside announcer insisted, Mark Noble Day: the post-match obsequies were so maudlin they might have been a funeral on EastEnders.

There were montages – “one of our own”, “Canning Town-born, claret-and-blue-raised”, “that Custom House grit”; a voiceover from Danny Dyer; Ben Shephard on the pitch; testimony from fans, at least one of whom had named their dog after him; clips of him in various scenarios in various seasons, hair magnificently consistent (his son, happily, seems to have inherited the family