What Marco Rose said after Bournemouth's 2-0 win over Leeds United quite neatly summed it all up: "I've got used to the Premier League now and I know how close everything is together and how much you have to appreciate it if you win these tight games."
This one was gossamer thin. Leeds could so easily have come away from the home of a side in blistering hot form with a creditable result. The game changed and hinged on one single five-yard pass. But when you're fishing in margins this thin one single five-yard pass can decide whether or not you catch three points or a whopping great heartbreak.
The first 10 minutes suggested that the recently-all-conquering Cherries were not going to have it all their own way. There was some tidy football on both flanks as the Whites got Harry Wilson and Daniel James involved high up the pitch early on. With Wilson it was neat interplay and one-twos, while James simple spun on a six pence to leave Tyler Adams sprawling, beat the next man and flashed the ball right through the danger zone. That ball was not at all far from being met by Dominic Calvert-Lewin.
All the football was being played by the visitors and one move in particular cast a spell on the hosts, until VAR got them off the hook. That move began with James Trafford, progressed through Tarik Muharemović's perfect switch to the right and was carried on by Jayden Bogle and Wilson, who found James Justin on the outside. The defender's pass across the box was tucked home by Calvert-Lewin, but via his arm. VAR intervened and it stayed 0-0.
The perfect response would have been to just go and score another and Leeds came close. The very next phase of play saw Wilson on the ball, cutting in from the right and firing just past the post. The Welshman's confidence and involvement grew, playing exactly where everyone envisaged him causing problems when he signed in the summer.
When Ao Tanaka intercepted a poor pass in the final third Wilson was on the scene immediately, popping up on the left to link up with the midfielder, get the ball back and dart into the area where his low cross was cut out.
Bournemouth had not been completely quiet in the first half an hour, James Trafford had to come sliding out to gather a potentially dangerous through ball and Leeds had to defend a corner but there was no hint of danger at all in the moments prior to the Cherries' opener. Muharemović took a goal kick, passed it to Trafford and the goalkeeper stepped forward, shaped to find Tanaka and instead gave it straight to Justin Kluivert, who duly found Evanilson. He found the net and Bournemouth had in their hands a lead that they could defend.
Just about every player Farke sent onto the pitch on Saturday misplaced at least one pass, but when it's that close to goal and that decisive there is no getting away from it. It was a game-changing error.
The goal appeared to wake the hosts up, too. They enjoyed more possession than before and some territory with it. Leeds had too many unnecessary turnovers from passes that weren't delivered with the right accuracy or simply weren't on to be tried.
Yet there were still signs of encouragement in the latter moments of the half and the second period didn't get off to a bad start either. Good work from Gabriel Gudmundsson on the left put Leeds on the front foot, James swept the ball right to Bogle and his pass for Wilson was a touch heavy. James' pace gave Leeds the chance up the pitch quickly or break from deep, it was just the final bit missing when play got there.
A team who had won their previous five games, scoring 14 times, were always going to forge chances and Trafford was called into action to beat away a Marcus Tavernier free-kick, before Rayan whistled a shot past the post.
Daniel Farke's changes midway through the half saw Anton Stach, Lukas Nmecha and Sean Longstaff all join the game. Gudmundsson's exit pushed Justin to left-back and almost brought immediate dividend. Wilson dug out a cross from the right and Justin arrived back post to head just wide.
The haunting thing for Leeds on Halloween was decision making and execution in and around the box, because the ball was there to be used to make something happen and rescue a result. Crosses into the area weren't quite right. Stach sent a free-kick high over the bar, then crossed too close to the keeper with Longstaff screaming for a cutback. The German set his sights from the edge of the box and his shot was just off target.
When Bournemouth dispossessed Longstaff and the ball was cut through the Leeds backline for Amine Adli to tuck in an insurance goal, it was everything the visitors had needed and lacked in the second half. A little bit of magic and, crucially, a shot on target. A moment of beauty that had Farke calling the sport 'brutal' at full-time.
Football is a game of opinions and this correspondent's take is that without that one single five-yard pass Leeds would not have lost. Whether or not they would have kept up their first half momentum and actually finished off a move to win the game is another question. Rose feels 'quite sure' that Leeds will collect 'many points' this season, which will come as exactly no consolation to anyone in and around Elland Road because this was one that got away. And it would have big. The only thing to be done is to cast out into the Premier League again, tighten things up at the top end of the pitch and reel in that elusive win.
