Jonathan Liew was at Villa Park. His report has landed. Here it is! Thanks for reading this MBM.
Ollie Watkins reflects from Villa’s perspective. “It’s similar to the Leicester game … we had a good start … I dunno what happened … you have to look back and go over it, but in the moment you don’t know what happened … a good team punished us … I don’t know what went wrong … 2-2 with five minutes to go, we should see the game out, I don’t think they should score two goals … Jorginho’s goal was lucky … but they had a lot of the ball and kept putting pressure on us … it’s disappointing at the end of the day … it’s fine margins, another day [Leon Bailey’s shot] goes in and it’s 3-2 and we see the game out, but it wasn’t meant to be and we’ve lost here again.”
A very smiley Mikel Arteta speaks to BT. “We showed a lot of character and resilience … we have to take some lessons … in the first half we didn’t do the simple things right … in the second half we dominated … we needed a magic moment and Jorginho produced it … the boys really wanted it, especially after what happened a couple of days ago … if you want to be at the top you have to win games in different ways … to do it against this team and this stadium, I have to give credit to the boys … the dressing room is bouncing … I am really pleased with them.”
Jorginho speaks to BT: “That’s the Premier League! That’s why it’s the best league in the world. It’s just beautiful … it’s important after the last results we have had … we had a chat at half-time and went back to doing the basics … we changed the game.”
Oleksandr Zinchenko adds: “An unbelievable lesson for all of us … we just need to believe to the very end that we can achieve everything … this group is such amazing people … we can achieve everything we want … the reaction from the second half is perfect and the right way to go in future games … we just need to keep going, to keep fighting.”
Arsenal cavort … and they’ve every right to cavort! What a huge game this could prove in this year’s title race. The Gunners were pushing for a winner, only for Aston Villa to be denied one themselves by two spectacular Aaron Ramsdale saves. Then Jorginho went up the other end, unleashing a wonder shot that came back off the crossbar and pinged in off Emi Martinez’s head. Proper you-couldn’t-script-it stuff, given that (a) Martinez used to play for Arsenal, (b) he’d been brazenly wasting time all through the second half, and (c) he then came up for a corner only for Arsenal to seal the deal on the breakaway. This could have been a morale-draining disaster for Arsenal; instead it’s revitalised their title challenge in the most dramatic way possible! A lot of delighted screaming and shouting going on. Can you blame them? You can’t blame them. Pity poor Villa, who played their part and scored a couple of crackers themselves, but given the context of the title race, today’s narrative is Arsenal’s alone.
FULL TIME: Aston Villa 2-4 Arsenal
Arsenal snap their dismal sequence in the most dramatic way possible! They’re back on top of the Premier League, for a couple of hours at least!
| Pos | Team | P | GD | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Arsenal | 23 | 28 | 54 |
| 2 | Man City | 23 | 36 | 51 |
| 3 | Man Utd | 23 | 10 | 46 |
| 4 | Newcastle | 22 | 22 | 41 |
| 5 | Tottenham Hotspur | 23 | 7 | 39 |
GOAL! Aston Villa 2-4 Arsenal (Martinelli 90+8)
Digne’s delivery is appalling. Arsenal tear clear on the counter. With the goalie AWOL, Martinelli romps clear down the middle and runs the ball into the empty net, celebrating as he does so. What a dramatic end to a wonderful game of football!
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90 min +7: Some head tennis in the Arsenal box leads to a corner on the left. Up comes Martinez! He couldn’t, could he?
90 min +6: What price now those two huge one-on-one saves by Ramsdale from Bailey and Duran?!
90 min +5: Nope! The goal stands! Holding and Tierney come on for Odegaard and Zinchenko. “Luck isn’t often given credit for league titles, but if Arsenal win this season’s, that lucky deflection off Martinez will have a lot to do with it,” writes Arsenal fan Kári Tulinius.
90 min +4: There’s going to be a VAR check, though. Was someone offside and in Martinez’s eyeline?
GOAL! Aston Villa 2-3 Arsenal (Martinez og 90+3)
The ball’s cut back for Jorginho on the edge of the D. He takes a dig from distance. A pearler towards the top right! Martinez with no chance. The ball hits the underside of the crossbar, flies back, hits Martinez on the back of his head, and pings into the bottom right! Sensational!
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90 min +2: Villa counter! Duran bombs down the right. He’s got Bailey in the middle, but shapes a curler towards the top left instead. Ramsdale makes another crucial one-on-one save.
90 min +1: The first of six added minutes sees Arsenal win a corner down the left. Nothing comes of it.
90 min: Mikel Arteta loses his temper with the referee, who had pulled back an Arsenal free kick for a moving ball. He sarcastically replicates the official’s hand gesture and is fairly fortunate not to go into the book. The pressure telling.
88 min: Odegaard dances down the right before checking back and swinging a long ball into the Villa box. Martinez plucks it from the air then goes down in the dramatic clock-management style. The referee helps him up.
87 min: Jorginho fires a pass down the right channel for Saka, who wriggles into space but only manages to slap a tame shot straight at Martinez.
86 min: Nketiah makes a nuisance of himself down the right and earns Arsenal another corner. Saka takes. He hits it long. Too long.
84 min: An Arsenal free kick out on the right. Odegaard swings it into the mixer. Gabriel rises highest, with Martinez flapping, but can only loop his header over the bar. Martinez then takes his sweet time over the restart, and finally goes into the referee’s notebook for his cheek.
82 min: Kamara plays a heavy pass wide right towards Bailey. The ball looks like flying out for a throw, but Bailey takes a gorgeous cushioned touch to control and tear off down the flank. He cuts infield, enters the box, and lashes a shot towards the top right. It’s heading in, but Ramsdale gets a touch to divert the ball onto the bar and away. What sensational football all round!
81 min: A bit of space for Tomiyasu down the right but the sub slams his cross into the first man Konsa. “It’s funny with Eddie Nketiah isn’t it,” begins Paul Curievici. “He was thought of as nothing more than a poacher but now his all-round game has improved so much it’s often his finishing that lets him down. There was an assumption that signing Mudryk would have allowed Arteta to move Martinelli to a central position, and I’m a bit perplexed why he hasn’t tried that with Trossard. Eddie looks like he could do with a break. He’ll score now of course.”
80 min: Bailey briefly threatens to swan past last man Gabriel down the right, but the Arsenal defender sticks out a leg to block and slam the door shut. Both teams want that winner!
79 min: Arsenal’s turn to switch out two players. Off go White and Xhaka, on come Tomiyasu and Vieira.
78 min: Another double change by Villa, who replace Moreno and Watkins with Digne and Duran.
77 min: Huge chance for Arsenal! Konsa miskicks and allows Nketiah to steal the ball and roll a pass in from the left towards Odegaard on the penalty spot. He’s free! He must score, but scuffs his shot wide right. Oh my!
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75 min: Bailey drifts in from the right, dribbling and probing. No chinks in the Arsenal defence, though. Villa come again, McGinn jinking his way past Xhaka, opening his body, and attempting to steer a shot into the top left. He doesn’t get enough behind it, and it’s plucked from the sky by Ramsdale.
73 min: Saka nearly bursts through the Villa defence down the inside-right channel, but walks the ball out for a goal kick. Disappointment for Saka, but at least he’s looking mobile again after that earlier injury worry. “Granted there were relevant off-pitch matters with Best, but I am not sold on the idea that Saka will be fine if he just gets on with it like a genius who was done at the top before he turned 27,” opines James Hupp, not unreasonably.
72 min: White is causing plenty of trouble down the right in tandem with Saka, and earns Arsenal another corner. They play it short again, just as they did for Zinchenko’s goal, but this time Odegaard’s ball into the box is no good and cleared by Konsa.
71 min: A fair chance this isn’t going to end 2-2.
70 min: Bailey runs at Gabriel down the right and forces a corner. McGinn takes. Gabriel bashes a clearing header upfield and Arsenal counter. Martinelli dribbles down the middle and draws three defenders, but his dink down the left channel, intended for Nketiah, is too heavy and it’s an easy gather for Martinez.
68 min: Arsenal respond by switching out Trossard for Martinelli.
67 min: Villa are losing control, so make a double change, Dendoncker and Bailey coming on for Buendia and a distinctly unimpressed Luiz.
66 min: Watkins romps down the left. McGinn is free on the other flank, but Watkins can’t get enough purchase on his attempted raking cross. Ramsdale intercepts with ease. This match has been pretty open from the get-go. It’s become very open now.
65 min: Trossard grooves his way down the left and wedges infield, hoping to find Saka in the box. But Moreno heads clear. “Partey among a few are big misses for Arsenal,” begins Paul Fitzgerald, “but think the chances that Nketiah miss, especially against City, might mean Jesus is the more unfortunate absentee.”
63 min: Odegaard drops deep to quarterback. He passes cleverly down the middle to release Nketiah, who brushes off Konsa, takes a touch to the right, and with only Martinez to beat, floats a dismal shot over the bar.
62 min: Villa were preparing a switch before the equaliser and now they make it. Ramsey comes on for Coutinho.
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GOAL! Aston Villa 2-2 Arsenal (Zinchenko 61)
Kamara and Saka grapple down the inside-right channel. A minor melee on the right-hand corner of the six-yard box. The ball’s clanked out for a corner. Arsenal play it short. Odegaard wanders in from the right and cuts back for Zinchenko, who drops a shoulder to move infield and whistle a fine shot from the edge of the box and into the bottom right!
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60 min: Luiz barrels down the middle, shrugging off a couple of challenges before slipping Watkins into space down the inside-left channel. Watkins tries to skin Saliba again, just like he did for the opening goal, but this time the defender has his number. He sticks to his man brilliantly before eventually striding away with the ball. Wonderful defence.
59 min: The game restarts. Meanwhile here’s Keith Hart on the protection, or otherwise, of Saka: “The same was true of Georgie Best at that age, but it spurred him to become an even greater virtuoso. Geniuses don’t need referee protection.”
57 min: Cash got accidentally clattered during that move, and requires a bit of treatment. A pause.
56 min: White chases what looks like a lost cause down the right. A nanosecond before the ball rolls out of play, he dinks brilliantly to the far post. Nketiah rises highest, with Martinez on walkabout, and floats a header towards the top right and off the top of the post. So close to a second equaliser!
55 min: Saka doesn’t look comfortable, grimacing a lot as the physio straps his ankle. But he gets up and prepares to battle on.
53 min: Saka is getting far too much space down the right from Villa’s perspective. Saka rolls infield for Odegaard, who tees up the in-rushing Xhaka for a shot that’s deflected wide left. From the resulting corner, Zinchenko and Saka take turns to shoot, with little success. Then Saka goes down, a legacy of that time Moreno clipped the shoe off his foot. A worry for Arsenal. Another worry for Arsenal.
51 min: Saka is sent into space down the right by White’s clever backheel. Saka crosses for Nketiah, who barges into Konsa to concede a pressure-releasing free kick.
49 min: Odegaard works his way down the middle before rolling towards Saka in space on the right. Saka aims for the top-left corner of the goal, but only manages to find the top-left corner of the stand behind. The home fans issue pelters.
48 min: Martinez takes longer than is strictly necessary to launch a kick upfield, irritating the hell out of the travelling support.
47 min: A fairly nondescript start to the half.
Villa get the ball rolling again. They’re kicking towards the Holte End in this second half. No changes. “I’m admittedly an Arsenal fan,” begins Jonny Watson, “but I find it incredibly frustrating how little protection Saka gets from referees: he is fouled constantly and doesn’t get a decisions, and to the extent fouls get given defenders don’t get booked until after the third or fourth free kick. Is it any wonder he reacts badly after he sees his captain get hacked down late and is then subject of a heavy challenge?”
A big second half coming up for title-chasing Arsenal. Potentially season-defining, if you want to be melodramatic about it. Here’s how things stand at the moment, with Manchester City travelling to Nottingham Forest later today in the 3pm kick-offs.
| Pos | Team | P | GD | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Man City | 23 | 36 | 51 |
| 2 | Arsenal | 23 | 25 | 51 |
| 3 | Man Utd | 23 | 10 | 46 |
| 4 | Newcastle | 22 | 22 | 41 |
| 5 | Tottenham Hotspur | 23 | 7 | 39 |
Half-time entertainment.
HALF TIME: Aston VIlla 2-1 Arsenal
Three wonderful goals. Some fine to-and-fro. Great fun, and though Arsenal won’t be in the mood to agree right now, currently facing a third Premier League defeat in four games, they’ve contributed to an open and entertaining half of football. More please!
45 min +3: Saka hangs the resulting free kick high in the air. Easy for Martinez to claim.
45 min +2: It suddenly kicks off. Odegaard goes down, having been caught by Mings on the shin. Accidentally so on the follow through. Then Coutinho clips Saka, who springs up and shoves his opponent in the chest. A brief brouhaha which burns itself out quickly enough. Then Saka and Luiz are booked for their part in the melee.
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45 min +1: What the deposed leaders would give for an equaliser before the break. Saka crosses deep from the right in search of one. McGinn slashes clear.
45 min: There will be two added minutes.
43 min: Jorginho slips a clever pass down the inside-right channel and nearly releases Saka into the box. Not quite. Goal kick.
41 min: Buendia and Saka battle hard down the Arsenal right. The Villa man wins this bout, the ball pinging off Saka and out for a goal kick. But there’s no quarter given here, and Saka is in the thick of everything, doing all he can to haul Arsenal back into this. He really is magnificent.
39 min: Saka stands on Moreno’s boot. Not a great challenge, but it looked the result of a slip, rather than an act of malice. VAR has a quick look, but play is soon waved on.
38 min: Kamara has the opportunity of releasing Cash down the right but overcooks the pass. No matter, because Villa swarm Arsenal and win the ball back. Buendia dribbles in from the flank. For a split second, he’s got the chance to curl into the top left of a half-unguarded net, Ramsdale caught out of position, on walkabout. But he doesn’t spot the opportunity. Ramsdale and Arsenal get away with one there.
36 min: Moreno’s poor backpass forces Martinez, under pressure from Saka, to hack out for an Arsenal corner. Saka takes himself. Moreno makes up for his error by clearing in an unambiguous style.
35 min: Villa boss Unai Emery wears a look of quiet contentment. His team have scored a couple of beautiful goals today. He’s also wearing a rather fetching brown body warmer. Tim Sherwood would approve.
33 min: Arsenal have come back once. Now they have to do it again. Saka attempts to hit back immediately with a dashing run down the right, followed by a low cross-cum-shot, but Villa block and clear.
GOAL! Aston Villa 2-1 Arsenal (Coutinho 31)
… and score a sensational team goal! Moreno is slipped free down the left by Kamara. Moreno crosses low. Buendia dummies, allowing the ball to roll through to Coutinho, who takes a touch in space to wrongfoot Ramsdale and slot into the bottom left. That’s a wonderful move.
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31 min: Arsenal throw in from the right. Saka flicks the ball off Luiz to win a corner, and takes it himself. The six-yard box is densely populated, but Martinez claims confidently and brilliantly. And then Villa break upfield …
29 min: Martinez batters long in the 1980s style. Saliba reads the flight well with Watkins lurking and hoping to break clear. All good this time, but Arsenal appear a little but vulnerable to the Reep-approved pass.
28 min: Luiz batters the free kick into the wall. Moreno tries to latch onto the rebound, but Nketiah isn’t having a bar of it, closing down the channel. Villa Park emits a sigh of frustration.
27 min: Buendia creams a lovely pass down the inside-left channel to find Watkins, who draws three Arsenal players before being clattered to the floor. That’s taken some of the pressure off the hosts, and it’s a free kick just left of centre, 25 yards out. Luiz fancies it.
25 min: The free kick is poor and headed clear by Kamara. Arsenal are on top here, though.
24 min: Arsenal ping it around patiently. Cash gets fed up and clips Xhaka on the left wing. A free kick. Everyone lines up on the edge of the Villa box. Odegaard to swing it in.
22 min: Saka is skittled over by Moreno, then loses a boot in another challenge with the Villa left-back. Moreno’s giving Arsenal’s star man some close attention all right.
20 min: BT Sport flash up a stat which shows that no Premier League team has scored more times in the first 15 minutes this season than Aston Villa, and nobody has found the net more times in the first 30 than Arsenal. Here we are, then.
19 min: Zinchenko sends a rising swerver goalwards from 25 yards. Not the easiest shot to claim, but Martinez does so without fuss.
18 min: On the touchline, Unai Emery performs the internationally recognised mime for CALM DOWN. It’s now his team who appear a bit shaken.
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GOAL! Aston Villa 1-1 Arsenal (Saka 16)
Jorginho jinks cutely down the inside-right channel and slips in White on the overlap. White crosses. Mings heads out. The ball drops to Saka, who lashes an unstoppable first-time effort across Martinez and into the top left. What a finish! That’s a fine response from Arsenal, and Mikel Arteta celebrates accordingly.
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15 min: Arsenal are turning up the pressure now. Villa, who had started so confidently, are suddenly struggling to get out of their final third.
13 min: Xhaka works his way down the left to earn the first corner of the afternoon. Trossard to take. It’s slung to the back stick, where Saka lurks, but McGinn intercepts and bashes clear. Better from Arsenal, who have turned up late.
11 min: Ramsdale takes an age over a simple clearance and is nearly closed down by Watkins. Arsenal are rattled. But then they spring forward and show in attack for the first time. Jorginho dinks a pass down the inside-right channel for White, who steers a shot past Martinez. Mings sticks out a leg to hook off the line and out for a corner, via the crossbar. Then the flag goes up for offside.
10 min: Nketiah goes over rather too easily. In fact, it’s a clear dive. Mings wants the referee to dish out a yellow, but Simon Hooper isn’t interested.
8 min: That early goal has got Villa Park bouncing. A rare old atmosphere. Arsenal look a little bit stunned after that blow. On the touchline, Mikel Arteta issues some emergency tactical advice to White.
7 min: Odegaard has taken a whack to the leg and doesn’t look particularly comfortable right now. As if Arsenal don’t have enough problems already.
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GOAL! Aston Villa 1-0 Arsenal (Watkins 5)
Cash steals the ball from Zinchenko deep in the Villa half. He cuts in from the right and hoicks a fine long diagonal pass towards Watkins. The striker has Saliba to beat, and does so efficiently, dropping a shoulder to gain a yard down the inside-left channel before entering the box and fizzing a low drive across Ramsdale and into the bottom right! A fine goal!
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4 min: Odegaard and Saka probe down the Arsenal right. Coutinho, Buendia and Luiz attempts to counter down the Villa left. A reasonably open, free-flowing start to this game, with both teams on the front foot.
2 min: Luiz takes a whack from the best part of 35 yards. Full marks for vaulting ambition if nothing else.
1 min: Both sets of players are wearing black armbands in memory of poor Christian Atsu. A small crumb of comfort that his very last act on a football field was beautiful.
This was Christian Atsu's final game in his professional football career: 90th minute free-kick to win the game for Hatayspor. Less than 24 hours later, the earthquake happened…
— EuroFoot (@eurofootcom) February 18, 2023
Such devastating news. RIP Atsu. 😢❤️ pic.twitter.com/3mn0eey0XR
There’s no room for racism, so the players take a knee in support of the cause. Then Arsenal get the ball rolling.
The teams are out! Villa wear their famous claret, while Arsenal sport second-choice black. A fine atmosphere at this grand old stadium. Meanwhile here’s deflated Gunners fan Charles Antaki, proving the likes of Danny Murphy, Jermaine Jenas and Martin Keown have nothing on good old Eric Blair: “So a lack of decent options means the Sakas, Ødegaards and Xhakas start yet another game. Somewhere towards the end of Animal Farm, when things are starting to go badly, loyal old carthorse Boxer is given yet more loads to shift – all he says is ‘I must work harder, I will work harder’, or words that effect. The twinkling feet of Saka and Ødegaard aren’t directly comparable (nor even are Xhaka’s these days) but still you wonder how long they can last. And it didn’t end very well for Boxer and his pals, as I remember.” We’ll be off in a couple of minutes.
| Pos | Team | P | GD | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Man City | 23 | 36 | 51 |
| 2 | Arsenal | 22 | 26 | 51 |
| 3 | Man Utd | 23 | 10 | 46 |
| 10 | Chelsea | 22 | 1 | 31 |
| 11 | Aston Villa | 22 | -8 | 28 |
| 12 | Crystal Palace | 22 | -10 | 25 |
Unai Emery speaks to BT. “Good afternoon … we want Tyrone Mings to be available at the start and to play the 90 minutes … we have to be competitive … I am happy with the players’ commitment and attitude … [Arsenal’s form] does not change things … they have been amazing this season … of course the last matches they have lost but they are playing in the same mood … they are confident and competitive … it is going to be a very difficult match … I want to play the best Arsenal and show our personal identity.”
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Mikel Arteta – cutting an impressively relaxed figure given his disappointments of the last week – speaks to BT Sport. “I have given Leandro [Trossard] the chance he deserves in the starting XI … he has been impacting the team … we need some energy in the front line … I saw how they played against the best team in the world [Manchester City] but they gave the game away … the first 20 minutes we have to play really well … we need much more efficiency in both boxes … we are here [ahead of schedule and unexpectedly in the title race] and we want to make the best out of it … we can do it … we have to stick together … we need characters with mentality in difficult moments … [Unai Emery] is a top manager with a lot of solutions and he is going to make it really hard for us, that’s for sure.”
Aston Villa have lost their last two Premier League matches, against Leicester and Manchester City, so make five changes to their starting XI. Matty Cash, Tyrone Mings, Alex Moreno, John McGinn and Philippe Coutinho replace Ashley Young, Calum Chambers, Lucas Digne and Jacob Ramsey, who drop to the bench, and Leon Bailey, who misses out altogether. Coutinho is making his first league start under Unai Emery.
Arsenal make two changes to the side named for the 3-1 defeat by Manchester City. Ben White and Leandro Trossard replace Takehiro Tomiyasu and Gabriel Martinelli, who drop to the bench. Emile Smith Rowe is back on the subs’ bench.
The teams
Aston Villa: Martinez, Cash, Konsa, Mings, Moreno, McGinn, Luiz, Kamara, Coutinho, Buendia, Watkins.
Subs: Sinisalo, Traore, Chambers, Young, Duran, Digne, Bailey, Dendoncker, Ramsey.
Arsenal: Ramsdale, Zinchenko, Saliba, Gabriel, White, Xhaka, Jorginho, Odegaard, Saka, Trossard, Nketiah.
Subs: Turner, Tierney, Smith Rowe, Martinelli, Kiwior, Holding, Tomiyasu, Vieira, Nelson.
Introducing your Aston Villa team to face Arsenal. 👊 #AVLARS pic.twitter.com/UhpgLrs2mk
— Aston Villa (@AVFCOfficial) February 18, 2023
⚫️ 𝗧𝗘𝗔𝗠𝙉𝙀𝙒𝙎 ⚡️
— Arsenal (@Arsenal) February 18, 2023
🔙 White returns in defence
💪 Jorginho x Xhaka in midfield
🆕 Trossard makes first league start
Let's do this - together! pic.twitter.com/2JU8yPY7ph
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Preamble
Aston Villa were recently beaten at home in the FA Cup by fourth-tier Stevenage; the last game played at Villa Park saw the hosts thrashed 4-2 by Leicester. That would normally give today’s title-chasing visitors great hope, but Arsenal have picked up just one point from the last nine available, and earlier this week were knocked off the top of the Premier League by the resurgent champions Manchester City. Neither team in great form, then; both teams in need of a result to get their season back on track. All the ingredients for a potential thriller? Let’s hope so! Kick off is at 12.30pm GMT. It’s on!
