It was the 76th minute when Trent Alexander-Arnold whipped off his No 66 shirt to exhibit his cartoonish torso, ran towards the pocket of giddy Liverpool supporters and spread his arms as wide as humanly possible, as if to say: “Well, isn’t this what you came for?” In many ways, yes, Alexander-Arnold’s vicious, unerring strike earned an inevitable victory over a team that lost hope a long, long time ago. “And now you’re going to believe us, we’re gonna win the league,” sang the 3,292 travelling supporters. The only thing is they’re going to have to wait that little bit longer. The crown could arrive as early as Wednesday if Arsenal lose at home to Crystal Palace.

Before a ball had been kicked almost all of the juice of this match had been slowly siphoned out over the course of Arsenal’s victory over Ipswich 134 miles away at Portman Road. Arne Slot said he caught the first 10 minutes before heading into a pre-match meeting and boarding the heavily-branded team bus to the King Power Stadium.

Leicester v Liverpool: Premier League – live

That win for Arsenal, which was wrapped up long before this game started, prevented Liverpool from clinching the title regardless of any shellacking inflicted on Leicester, for whom failure to beat the champions-elect confirmed another fact we have known for a while: Leicester will be playing in the Championship next season. The question now is how much longer will Ruud van Nistelrooy remain in charge?

As it happened, this was not the cakewalk that had been widely advertised, though somehow it took until late on for the league’s most prolific attack to breach the second-worst defence in the division, and that was after the former Liverpool defender Conor Coady saw a header disallowed by VAR, with the Leicester substitute Patson Daka penalised for a bump on Alisson.

Liverpool had scores of chances, registering a total of 27 shots to Leicester’s four, 10 on target to none respectively. Mohamed Salah saw the first of his several efforts pinball off one post and against another before Ricardo Pereira hacked the ball clear inside three minutes and Luis Díaz went close with an acrobatic effort before half-time.

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Jamie Vardy, who again led the line for the hosts, talked of how Leicester broke a rotten cycle of results by earning a point at Brighton last time out and, in fairness, they were well in this game until Alexander-Arnold’s strike flew in. Even afterwards the substitute Facundo Buonanotte dragged a shot wide. Wilfred Ndidi recorded Leicester’s first effort, cannoning a left-foot shot against a post after Stephy Mavididi whizzed clear of Conor Bradley.

Leicester’s relegation was confirmed after their defeat against Liverpool. Photograph: Mike Egerton/PA

Despite Leicester’s best intentions, it still felt like a matter of time for Liverpool. Dominik Szoboszlai leathered a powerful shot at Mads Hermansen, which the Leicester goalkeeper parried before Coady cleared for a corner with Salah lurking. Díaz volleyed over from a Bradley cross, Hermansen saved well from Kostas Tsimikas, again preferred to Andy Robertson at left-back.

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Alexander-Arnold arrived in place of Bradley for his first appearance in five weeks after an ankle injury with about 20 minutes to play. He made a lasting impact. Tsimikas’s corner caused a headache in the Leicester box and Salah saw his shot strike a post before Diogo Jota rattled the crossbar.

Would it be one of those strange days? The ball dropped for Alexander-Arnold and he wellied a left-foot shot back where it came from. Alexander-Arnold basked in the occasion. Leicester? Not so much. After seven minutes of second-half stoppage time, Leicester’s fate was sealed, relegation confirmed.