By the end, all Brendan Rodgers could do was stand, arms folded, and watch. The famous clappers had fallen silent. The race was run.

Leicester spent more time inside the top four than any other Premier League club in season 2020-21. On this, the final day, they stood fifth.

Fifth is nowhere in terms of what Rodgers had hoped to achieve. Sure, before the season began had anyone offered the staff, players, owners and supporters of Leicester fifth and the FA Cup, too, it would have been accepted and celebrated as the second greatest season in the club's history.

Leicester missing out on the Champions League may send Tottenham in for Brendan Rodgers

But fifth, after 242 days of first, second, third and fourth? Fifth after fourth with 14 minutes to go? Fifth after 1-0 and 2-1 up on the last day? That's a bitter pill to swallow.

Ryan Mason's final act as Tottenham's interim manager might be to oversee the result that gives his chairman the motivation to make one final play for Rodgers this summer.

Daniel Levy may only be offering UEFA Europa Conference League football, austerity and a future without Harry Kane, but it depends how deep the hurt is after this.

Chelsea lost. That will be even more painfully frustrating. Chelsea didn't even do their bit. Had Chelsea and Liverpool taken three points from their 38th games, then even Leicester's best efforts would not have been enough. 

But Chelsea blew it, too. They went 2-1 down at Aston Villa, had their captain Cesar Azpilicueta sent off and lost goalkeeper Edouard Mendy to injury at half-time. It would have been a disastrous afternoon, were it not for one fact: Leicester losing made it feel like a triumph.

For Thomas Tuchel, it was mission accomplished. When he took over in January, he was told that the only target this season was Champions League football. So it did not matter that it was achieved despite the first away defeat of Tuchel's reign; it did not matter that Azpilicueta will be missing at the start of next season; even Mendy's injury will only become an issue if he is unfit for the Champions League final.

These were all minor details compared to the league table which showed Chelsea with 67 points, Leicester 66. Pick any one of the 0-0 draws with Wolves, Manchester United, Brighton or Leeds. That's Champions League football, right there.

'It's hugely disappointing for us,' said Rodgers. 'We fought so hard all season. I always said you're judged after 38 games and unfortunately we couldn't quite make it. I told the players before the game that we've been playing non-stop - except for 21 days - for two years. When we started work together we were mid-table and now we're challenging the elite, we've won the FA Cup for the first time in our history and we're on the right path without the resources of the other teams.

'I have nothing but pride. The ownership have given me amazing support. The players have given me their heart and souls every day. I'm so disappointed for them we couldn't get over the line.'

Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp, however, echoed the thoughts of many when he said: 'It feels like the season was two years long.'  

Yet alone among the managers chasing Champions League football next season, he had a relatively calm afternoon. Given their injuries, Liverpool's finish to this campaign has been magnificent: 10 games, eight wins, two draws.

Sunday's victory over Crystal Palace was comfortable, too. Klopp's team took third place after 34 minutes and stayed there until the final whistle; by contrast in that same time-span Chelsea dropped from third, to fourth, then fifth, in a passage of play that must have shredded the nerves of their supporters, none of whom were allowed inside Villa Park.

That yo-yo bounce continued all afternoon: back to fourth after 40 minutes, down to fifth after 51, back up again on 76. Until Leicester's ultimate collapse in the closing stages the underdogs of the three looked set fair.

After Chelsea went 2-0 down to an Anwar El Ghazi penalty, Leicester could actually have drawn and still made Champions League football. It needed something calamitous for them to fail. Calamity duly arrived, wearing gloves.

It is ironic that at Stamford Bridge last week 22 players, plus substitutes, plus staff were involved in what was termed a brawl and it was hard to see a punch thrown.

Here, Kasper Schmeichel, the Leicester goalkeeper, actually threw a punch in its proper context, and must have wished he hadn't. The hero of last weekend's FA Cup final triumph tried to punch clear a corner and accidentally diverted the ball into his own net. 

As ever with Schmeichel, there was a litany of injustices and mitigations to explain this event, but replays confirmed not one had a scrap of supporting evidence.

He wasn't hampered, he wasn't impeded, there was no foul or skulduggery.

He came for the ball, missed the contact he sought, clipped an inswinger into his own goal. It was strange but from that moment, Leicester looked done.

Despite the home support, despite the knowledge of Chelsea's fragile position, there was only going to be one winner.

'Leicester City, we're coming for you.' Remember that? Well, five years late, Tottenham finally arrived.

They scored in the 87th minute and the sixth minute of injury time, both through Gareth Bale, to give Leicester's demise an emphasis it did not deserve.

And before the eulogies to Bale's final Tottenham appearance begin it was a win that secures seventh place and a berth in a UEFA competition for which Kovos Kovalivka of Ukraine get to come in at the third qualifying round because they are ranked more highly than Torpedo Zhodino or Paide Linnameeskond.

Nobody at Tottenham paid Bale's wages in the hope of playing Paide Linnameeskond. This is why Harry Kane is very much hoping he has signed off his final Tottenham appearance with a win, a goal and his third Golden Boot, pipping Mo Salah by a score of one.

How Tottenham have managed to turn such a prolific goalscorer - Kane's three awards is the same as Alan Shearer and behind only Thierry Henry in the modern era - into absolutely no trophies is one of the great mysteries. Goals are currency. Up in Manchester, Sergio Aguero was proving just that with two against Everton, despite only coming on as a 65th-minute substitute.

It took Aguero's total to 184 in the Premier League, the most for one club in the competition's history, beating Wayne Rooney's 183 for Manchester United.

It was good that some fans were back in to watch his last match at the Etihad, but a career like that merits a full house. Pep Guardiola dragged him to the front for the champagne-drenched celebration photographs with the trophy. Barcelona will enjoy him now.

Elsewhere, West Ham qualified for the Europa League with a comfortable home win against Southampton and the minimum of fuss, which may just about count as the most startling news of the day.

Light relief came later with Raspberry Ripplegate in which Chelsea claimed to have been denied entry to Villa Park for 12 minutes - a whole 12 minutes! - by stewards eating ice creams.

And Gabriel contrived to lose a tooth in Arsenal's post-match celebrations. Arsenal came eighth, which sees them behind Tottenham and out of Europe entirely for the first time since 1995-96, which is catastrophic for Mikel Arteta's forward planning.

Yet still they celebrated. Gabriel's missing tooth says more about Arsenal in 2021 than its followers will wish to know.