That’s all for today. Thanks for your company and emails – goodnight!
Mikel Arteta's reaction
First of all you have to congratulate Man Utd for the victory. It happened in a really strange way, to be fair, because we were very dominant in the first half an hour. We scored the goal and had two more brilliant chances to score – and then we gave them the goal, which is very unusual from our side. That changed the momentum and the energy a little bit.
After that we dropped our standard a bit; we have to do much better with the ball. And then they had two magic moments from Dorgu and Cunha – credit to them because in big games you need those moments. We were carrying a little bit of that negativity, and the lack of fluidity we needed.
It’s a really painful one. But now is the time to be very, very close to the players who have given us so much joy and so many [great] performances, and to support them.
They are very dangerous and we knew that. We have to learn from it. Defeats are part of winning, and you have to take them like this because [the team] need to be reminded how good they are.
I hope I don’t have to [send a message to the supporters]. When we win, it’s easy. When we draw or lose, that’s when we have to show togetherness, the unity, the energy to get where we want. Defeats are part of that for us and for any team.
We were brilliant at Stamford Bridge [in the Carabao Cup] and against Inter, one of the best teams in Europe. Sometimes it’s not your day and you don’t do the simple things as well as you need to – and on top of that, look at the goals they scored. Sometimes you have to give credit to the opponents as well.
[Did you think Dorgu handled it?] I haven’t looked at it. It’s fine, it’s gone, we can do nothing about it.
I take responsbility for everything. We move on and in three days we have another game.
[Do the players need to be freed up?] I don’t think so. Four days ago, how free and fluid they looked in Milan. It was unbelievable. No excuses. We accept the defeat, we congratulate the opponent and we move forward.
Roy Keane on Matheus Cunha’s winner
The power and the accuracy in this strike… I call it a Man Utd goal. This is what you want to see from United players. I’d watch that all night. Brilliant goal!
On Patrick Dorgu’s potential handball, the replays aren’t conclusive so the VAR decision to award the goal was correct. At the time I thought it hit his arm. Now, having seen a few replays, my instinct is it came off his hip.
The Emirates Stadium was a sea of anxiety. The Arsenal fans are acutely aware that a first Premier League title since 2004 is within their grasp and when it is so tantalising, it will be fraught. Especially when matches like this become a grind. When the attacking patterns do not work. When the team looks vulnerable.
Arsenal could feel their nearest rivals, Manchester City and Aston Villa, on their backs. Both had both won to cut their lead at the top to four points. Mikel Arteta’s team had drawn their previous two league matches 0-0 – against Liverpool and Nottingham Forest. They were desperate for something here and when Patrick Dorgu put Manchester United 2-1 up with a scorching drive early in the second half, they would have taken anything. They would end with nothing – apart from a thumping headache.
Martin Odegaard's reaction
It wasn’t good enough from us. It’s hard to tell exactly [what went wrong], we need some time to analyse it. The performance wasn’t good enough but it’s time to stick together, even more, and to just bounce back.
We were the better team in the first half. We scored the goal and had control, but we had a lot of giveaways during the game that created dangerous moments. In the second half the momentum changed a bit.
[Was there a nervousness today?] No, I don’t think so. We were well prepared for the game and started strongly.
It was never gonna be easy in the league, we know that. We’re still top of the league. We have to stick together, keep going and bounce back straight away.
“What a bonkers game this is Rob,” writes Steve Bradfield. “A few weeks ago Man U were in crisis, last week it was City, this morning it was Liverpool and now it’ll be Arsenal.”
Manchester United reaction
Harry Maguire (the player of the match)
It’s absolutely massive. One-off results can happen in a derby so we had to back it up today. Arsenal ask a lot of questions of you, so to have a late setback and still get the win… it’s a magnificent performance.
Michael’s been brilliant with us. He’s brought fresh energy and galvanised the group. Two tough games, so to win both is magnificent.
We’ve got a bigger squad now with the lads back from Afcon, and we’ve got players like Matheus to come on. I’m sure he’s not happy being on the bench, I know what he’s like, but I must say he’s made the difference for us in both games.
They started the game really well, but after 20 minutes I felt we got a grip on the game and started being braver on the ball. I think we were comfortable in the second half. Their biggest threat was set-plays, they managed to score one – it was a scrappy goal and something we’d have to look at. But like I said, we have quality that can hurt teams and we managed to do that today.
[The fans are still singing behind you…] It’s been a tough few years for them. Results like last week, and like tonight, are what they deserve.
Matheus Cunha (the matchwinner)
[Is it your best moment for United so far?] 100 per cent. These are the games you dream of playing in; the games you watch on television and want to be part of. It means everything.
[On being sub] Everyone wants to play, everyone has the quality to play, but the first thing is to give everything to help this team. We did it well today.
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Michael Carrick walks over to the away fans, waves for them to make more noise and then clenches his fist in triumph. That is a helluva win for Manchester United. They weren’t as dominant as last week, but they were never going to be away to Arsenal. In some ways – their response to adversity, the quality of the goals – this was more impressive.
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The Premier League table
| Pos | Team | P | GD | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Arsenal | 23 | 25 | 50 |
| 2 | Man City | 23 | 26 | 46 |
| 3 | Aston Villa | 23 | 10 | 46 |
| 4 | Man Utd | 23 | 7 | 38 |
| 5 | Chelsea | 23 | 14 | 37 |
Full time: Arsenal 2-3 Man Utd
Arsenal are beaten at home for the first time this season, and their new year wobble is in danger of becoming something more serious. Eight days ago they had the chance to go nine points clear at the top; now they lead Man City and Aston Villa by four with 15 games to play.
Oh, and Manchester United are up to fourth after winning a Premier League game at the Emirates for the first time since 2017. A flawed but fascinating game was settled by a barnstorming late goal from the substitute Matheus Cunha.
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90+8 min Gyokeres fouls the last defender Martinez. The referee allows play to continue, just in case, and Gyokeres’s shot is blocked by Lammens anyway.
90+6 min Martinez makes an important lunging challenge on Saka in the area. The own goal aside, Martinez has been excellent.
90+4 min A loose square pass from Saliba runs across to Fernandes, who tries to score from the halfway line with Raya out of his area, never mind his goal. He gets it all wrong and the ball flies miles wide.
Can you call it a chance when it’s from the halfway line? For a player of Fernandes’s class I think it was, certainly with Raya so far out.
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90+4 min Arsenal move the ball left, then right, then left again. They’ve created very little in open play, though Man Utd deserve a lot of credit for their defending as well.
90+3 min “Forest fan, zero love for Arsenal, happy Manyoo are starting to play well,” says Mark Turner. “How that Dorgu goal was allowed to stand is beyond my ken.”
We’ll hear plenty about it I’m sure.
90+1 min Rice’s corner is punched away well by Lammens. Cunha tries to break and is pulled back by Eze; he’s booked.
90 min Arsenal win another corner, this time on the left. There will be seven minutes of added time.
89 min: Man Utd substitution Noussair Mazraoui is on for Amad Diallo, which means a switch to 5-4-1/9-0--1.
What a goal from Matheus Cunha! Unbelievable stuff. He received a cute little pass from Mainoo on the half turn, veered from left to right at an angle and flashed a curling shot around Gabriel from 25 yards. Raya had no chance and it flew into the bottom corner. It shouldn’t be possible to hit a ball that hard with the side of the foot.
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GOAL! Arsenal 2-3 Man Utd (Cunha 87)
Pick that sucker out!
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Saka clipped another seriously awkward corner under the crossbar. Lammens tried to come through the crowd but mistimed a punch towards his own goal*. Cunha cleared it off the line and Merino followed up to score. The ball just crossed the line before Sesko lumped it away. For a split second time stood still… until the referee looked at his watch and gave the goal.
* I think it was Lammens but there were so many bodies in there; it may have come off somebody’s head.
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GOAL! Arsenal 2-2 Man Utd (Merino 84)
Arsenal score from a corner for the 971st time this season !
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83 min Saka, on the right side of the area, tries to catch Lammens out with a disguised shot through the legs of Casemiro. Lammens gets down to push it round the near post.
82 min Sesko, just on the field, takes a Bruno Fernandes pass straight in the face and is a bit dazed for 30 the next 30 seconds.
82 min: Man Utd substitution Benjamin Sesko replaces Patrick Dorgu, a strikingly/riskily attacking change in the circumstances. Cunha will move to the left wing.
81 min United are playing on with 10 men for now. Saka’s cross is headed over by Gyokeres, though he thought it should have been a corner. Difficult chance either way.
79 min Dorgu fouls White, loses his balance and then feels his right hamstring while down. I don’t think he’ll be able to continue.
78 min Senne Lammens has had only one routine to save since the 18th minute. It’s a bit of a headscratcher.
77 min “My feeling is that if you were to make a time-lapse video of Arsenal’s momentum over the season, you’d see the pendulum slowly stop and (around now) start to move backwards,” writes Joe Johnson. “They’ve been expending a lot of energy in recent weeks huffing and puffing without blowing teams away, winning by the odd goal, drawing — hanging on, basically, in way that’s not sustainable.”
I know what you mean, though I’m not sure I’d go that far. And I still think they’ll win the league.
75 min: Arsenal substitution Noni Madueke replaces Leandro Trossard. Bukayo Saka has moved across to the left wing.
73 min A decent spell of possession for United until Martinez overhits a pass through to Raya.
72 min Dorgu controls a ball into the area and tries to tee up Mainoo with a backheel. White does well to get in front and clear. Moments later Cunha’s dangerous cross is cut out at the near post by Saka.
71 min Merino’s shot from the edge of the area deflects off the falling Maguire and is saved comfortably by Lammens. It hit Maguire’s hand, in fact, but he was on his way to ground, not dissimilar to Martin Odegaard at Anfield the other year.
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69 min: Man Utd substitution Matheus Cunha replaces Bryan Mbeumo, whose equaliser, scored with a resting heart rate, was the turning point of the game. Well, the first three-quarters of the game.
68 min White overhits a tricky but still relatively simple return pass to Saka in the area. Saka was the wrong side of Dorgu and would have had a shooting chance with a better ball.
65 min Rice shoots over from distance. Arsenal, though they are on top at the moment, still look very self-conscious.
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64 min Rice is booked for standing on Fernandes’s foot after the ball had gone.
63 min Arsenal took the lead after 29 minutes, but their last – in fact only – shot on target was after 18 minutes.
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62 min “The point of having a cushion at the top is that you’re allowed a hiccup,” writes Kári Tulinius. “But this is starting to feel more like a case of indigestion. Does Arsenal have Gaviscon or Tums on the bench?”
61 min Martinez tracks White’s run and concedes another corner. Saka’s inswinger is headed away by Casemiro, but it feels like Arsenal are building up a head of steam for the first time since they went 1-0up.
58 min: Quadruple substitution for Arsenal Mikel Arteta won’t die wondering. Ben White, Viktor Gyokeres, Mikel Merino and Eberechi Eze have come on for Piero Hincapie, Gabriel Jesus, Martin Odegaard and Martin Zubimendi.
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56 min Corner to Arsenal on the right. Saka curls it under the crossbar, Lammens mistimes his punch under pressure and Mbeumo, just off the goalline, boots the ball away.
53 min Man Utd had started the second half well, picking up where they left off before the break. And they want more. Dorgu runs onto a lovely lay-off from Mbeumo, twists Timebr instead out and blasts wide from a tight angle.
52 min: Goal given! I thought it might be disallowed for handball against Dorgu – it seemed to hit his arm as he tried to resist Zubimendi’s recovery challenge. I’d like to see that again, and I suspect Mikel Arteta will have plenty to say if Arsenal don’t win. But that doesn’t change the fact it was an extraordinary goal from Dorgu.
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Dorgu surged infield from the left and played a short one-two with Fernandes to lose Zubimendi, then a second give-and-go with the same player to beat Rice. Dorgu resisted Zubimendi’s recovery challenge, waited for the ball to bounce on the edge of the D and then lashed it past Raya with his left foot. It thundered off the underside of the bar and into the net. What a goal!
Hang on, there’s a VAR check for handball against Dorgu.
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GOAL! Arsenal 1-2 Man Utd (Dorgu 50)
A monstrous goal from Patrick Dorgu!
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47 min “Does anyone else want to tell Michael Carrick to fold his coat collar down?” asks Bill Muskett.
46 min Declan Rice gets the second half under way.
Half-time reading
EFL regulations mean guests at the Blackpool Football Club Stadium Hotel can’t watch the game – Michael Butler checks in for a trip into the dark
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Half time: Arsenal 1-1 Man Utd
It’s a bit angsty at the Emirates, with the half-time whistle eliciting unspecified grumbles from the home fans. Arsenal smothered Man Utd for half an hour before taking the lead through Lisandro Martinez’s own goal. Then they lost a decent chunk of the plot. First they allowed United back into the game; then they gifting them an equaliser when Martin Zubimendi’s errant backpass was accepted with thanks by Bryan Mbeumo.
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45+1 min Fernandes clips a pass into Mbeumo on the edge of the D. He spots Raya off his line and tries an imaginative volleyed lob with his right foot. It drifts a couple of yards wide, and Raya may have got to it anyway, but the fact he tried it is a reflection of United’s growing confidence.
45 min Two minutes of added time.
44 min Man Utd are the better team right now. Martinez strolls down the left, in open play, only to drill his cross against the head of his teammate Dorgu.
42 min Arsenal break from a United corner. Trossard finds Hincapie down the left; he overhits his cross.
41 min You’ve got to love a classy one-on-one finish like Mbeumo’s. We did a list piece way back when, including – come back, Arsenal fans – a Kanu special.
40 min Arsenal were much the better team at 0-0, but as soon as they went 1-0 up they looked ragged and vulnerable. Very unlike them.
39 min Zubimendi tried to make amends with a shot from 15 yards that is blocked by Maguire.
Zubimendi, in the inside-right channel, was off balance when he tried to play the ball back to Raya. He screwed the ball into the ground and left it well short. Mbeumo nipped in and was coolness incarnate as he walked past Raya to score. Superb finish.
GOAL! Arsenal 1-1 Man Utd (Mbeumo 37)
Bryan Mbeumo punishes a horrible mistake from Martin Zubimendi.
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36 min Amad’s inswinging corner is headed up in the air at the near post, I think by Jesus, and loops towards goal. It’s desperately cleared by a combination of Raya and Gabriel.
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35 min Dalot wins United’s first corner of the day (I think). They have an excellent record at set-pieces as well this season.
34 min: Fine defending by Saliba!
Saliba, unaware of what’s behind him, allows Mbeumo’s pass to run into the area towards Fernandes. But he recovers superrbly to make a lunging tackle and deflect Fernandes’s shot behind for a corner. Well, technically it was a goalkick because the referee was unsighted, but it was a crucial intervention from Saliba.
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31 min Mbeumo collects a long ball in the area and lays it back to Fernandes, 20 yards out. He throttles a shot well wide and the Emirates goes wild.
Lisandro Martinez has given Arsenal the lead. Hincapie’s deep cross from the left was headed up in the air by Dorgu and collected by Saka. He stabbed a short-range chip back towards Odegaard, who sliced a volley into the six-yard box. Martinez, who was wrestling with Timber, missed an attempted volleyed clearance with his left foot. The ball then hit his standing foot and rolled miserably into the net.
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GOAL! Arsenal 1-0 Man Utd (Martinez og 29)
Correction: it was a bit bloodless.
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28 min Neither team has created a chance in open play. It’s all a bit… bloodless.
26 min United are in the game now, even if for the time being that amounts to little more than untroubled possession in the middle third.
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23 min United have their first sustained spell of possession in the final third. Nothing comes of it, but little acorns and all that.
21 min Saka runs Shaw to win another corner for Arsenal. The former Australian opener Justin Langer once said that batting against Freddie Flintoff was like being buried alive, such was Flintoff’s relentlessness and aggression; United’s players know the feeling.
Saka’s corner hits the stooping Gabriel on the shoulder and goes well wide.
18 min: Good save by Lammens! He has now. Rice’s marvellous free-kick from the right is met by the leaping Zubimendi, six yards out. His header brushes Casemiro’s noggin and is tipped over dramatically by Lammens. A really good save.
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16 min Arsenal, who must be the most horrible team to play against, continue to smother Man Utd. The only positive for United is that Senne Lammens hasn’t had a save to make, yet.
15 min Rice exchanges passes with Saliba in the area and has a shot blocked at source by Martinez. Saliba was in a terrific position to slide the ball across the six-yard box; instead he pulled it back to Rice, which on reflection was probably the wrong option.
The main reason Saliba was so far forward in open play is that he is going in tight on Bruno Fernandes.
13 min Successful passes in the final third: Arsenal 22-0 Man Utd.
12 min Arsenal try a fancy corner, Rice picking out Saka on the edge of the D. Doesn’t work.
11 min Arsenal have started really well, particularly without the ball. United have no time to breathe in possession. Trossard runs Dalot to win another corner, this time on the left.
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10 min Saka’s inswinging corner is headed down by Casemiro and lifted over from 15 yards by the backpedalling Trossard. Tough chance.
9 min: Corner to Arsenal!
Saka beats Dorgu on the outside and wins Arsenal’s first corner. He’ll take it himself…
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7 min Man Utd have barely crossed the halfway line in the last three or four minutes. After good play by Trossard, Rice has a low drive from the edge of the area that hits the heel of Martinez.
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6 min Saka teases Shaw and slides a pass towards the underlapping Timber in the area. Casemiro does well to shepherd the ball out of play.
4 min “Arsenal have had between 47 and 69 per cent of the possession in every league game this season, except one – the first, at Old Trafford, when they had only 39 per cent,” writes Tim de Lisle. “No wonder United lost!”
3 min You’d expect Arsenal to dominate possession, with United trying to hurt them in transition as they did City. That’s how the match has started.
2 min “So, then,” begins Charles Antaki, whose take on the team news has been keenly awaited. “Mikel Arteta has finally take a note of the chicken entrails, the tea leaves at the bottom of his cup, and the unusual formation of birds in flight in the winter sky, and left Viktor Gyökeres on the bench. Also what the chap was actually doing (or not doing) on the actual pitch. Jesus saves the day? We shall see.”
1 min And they’re off.
The players walk out on a crisp afternoon in north London. Man Utd’s players are wearing special tracksuits in tribute to Mani, the legendary bassist and United fan who died in November. They look great: a familiar retro Adidas template with some of John Squire’s Stone Roses artwork.
From the archive
At the final whistle, as Arsenal celebrated around Marc Overmars, the camera cut to a thin man with curly black hair, stubble and a black leather jacket. He was wild-eyed, clenching both fists and growling “YES!”. Barry Ferst is a laid-back, softly spoken man, but sport is one of the few areas of life in which happiness is demonstrated through aggression. It brings out the Danny Dyer in most of us.
Sky have reunited Patrick Vieira and Roy Keane in the studio for today’s game. It’ll never get old, will it? Please, never let it get old.
Keane You were going to war. But there was also respect for Arsenal and their players [points thumb at Vieira]. Huge respect.
Vieira This is the kind of game every single player wants to be involved in. There’s a passion, there’s a respect. But you want to win.
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This, from my MBM colleague Tim de Lisle, is a terrific read on what Michael Carrick’s Manchester United did so well last weekend.
United showed more intensity than usual, as you’d expect in a derby, but they also showed more composure. Carrick had called for it beforehand, and as possibly the calmest player ever seen in a United shirt, he speaks with some authority on the subject. When Amad broke away in the 33rd minute, he coolly rounded Donnarumma and rolled the ball into an empty net. When Fernandes broke away eight minutes later, he went one better, landing a defender on his backside after rounding the keeper. Both goals were disallowed, but they stood as statements of intent.
Michael Carrick’s on picking an unchanged XI
It’s never the same again! Every game is different but we’ve had a good week and we’re in good shape. We understand this has been a tough place to come for many teams. But we’re going into the game in a good spirit and that’s the most important thing.
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Mikel Arteta on the selection of Gabriel Jesus
We have to work game by game. We have to understand where each individual is, who were going to play and then make a decision.
There are still three horses in the Premier League title race. Ollie Watkins has just scored a fine goal to make it Newcastle 0-2 Aston Villa at St James’ Park. With only a couple of minutes of normal time remaining, Villa are on course for another outstanding victory. What a team!
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Set pieces are dominating the Premier League this season, with almost 30% of goals coming from corners, free-kicks, penalties or long throws. The leaders, Arsenal, are kings of the dead ball, scoring 17 of their 40 league goals from set pieces (including penalties). But what makes Mikel Arteta’s side so effective in these areas, and what can opponents do to stop them? The data provides some answers.
Team news
Gabriel Jesus, who scored twice against Internazionale in the week, is preferred to Viktor Gyokeres up front. It’s his first Premier League start since a 1-1 draw at Brighton on 4 January 2025.
Jesus’s inclusion is one of four changes from last week’s goalless draw at the City Ground. Piero Hincapie, Leandro Trossard and Bukayo Saka replace Ben White, Gabriel Martinelli and Noni Madueke.
No great surprise that Michael Carrick sticks with the Manchester United team that beat Manchester City so impressively.
Arsenal (4-3-3) Raya; Timber, Saliba, Gabriel, Hincapie; Odegaard, Zubimendi, Rice; Saka, Jesus, Trossard.
Subs: Arrizabalaga, Mosquera, White, Eze, Marinelli, Gyokeres, Madueke, Merino, Lewis-Skelly.
Man Utd (4-2-3-1) Lammens; Dalot, Maguire, Martinez, Shaw; Casemiro, Mainoo; Amad, Fernandes, Dorgu; Mbeumo.
Subs: Bayindir, Heaven, Malacia, Mazraoui, Yoro, Ugarte, Mount, Sesko, Cunha.
Referee Craig Pawson.
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Michael Carrick has revealed that Ole Gunnar Solskjær has been fully supportive of his appointment as Manchester United’s interim head coach because the Norwegian, who was also interviewed for the role, is a close friend.
The pair were at United together during the 2006-07 season and Carrick was a member of Solskjær’s coaching staff when the Norwegian was first the club’s caretaker manager then a permanent appointment from December 2018 to November 2021.
When Solskjær was sacked Carrick managed United for three games but he departed after Ralf Rangnick took over, stating that loyalty to Solskjær was a factor. Carrick was asked whether he had spoken to his former teammate since beginning his second interim tenure.
“Yes, I spoke to him,” he said. “I’m close, we’ve been through a lot together, so he’s been fully supportive as you’d expect. He’s some man and I respect him an awful lot. He wished us all the best and he was happy that we got the right result against Manchester City.”
Mikel Arteta says nobody is more driven than him to win the Premier League this season as he promised his Arsenal players would not be distracted by talk of them as champions-elect.
The signs for Arsenal are extremely promising despite the inevitable anxiety among their fanbase, which has been felt during the past two league matches – the 0-0 draws against Liverpool and Nottingham Forest.
Pep Guardiola, whose Manchester City are second, described Arsenal as “the best team in the world” on Friday and Arteta has heard the line about how it is their title to lose. Arsenal last won the league in 2003-04.
‘Where do you want you statue, Michael?’
The problem Manchester United have – after 13 years and seven managers of failure – is that for whatever action they take now, there is a bad precedent. Keep Michael Carrick on, and it’s just another Ole Gunnar Solskjær situation. But replace him and, for almost whoever they appoint – be it a Premier League veteran, foreign maestro, renowned past-his-best winner, Red Bull-adjacent gegenpresser, austere Dutchman or Portuguese ideologue – they have done it before and it hasn’t worked. It’s almost like the biggest problem at the club isn’t the manager.
Carrick’s start was undeniably impressive. There was pace and zip and creativity. The relief of players being released from the 3-4-2-1 was akin to one of those videos of cows being allowed back into the pasture after being kept in a barn over the winter. Who could possibly have predicted that Amad Diallo would excel as a right-sided forward, or that Bruno Fernandes might thrive as a No 10? United didn’t just beat Manchester City 2-0; they hammered them.
Preamble
Fun fact: only one of the first nine Premier League meetings between Arsenal and Manchester United was televised in England. Since then, it has been an and-it’s-live banker: this afternoon’s game at the Emirates is the 59th consecutive league meeting to be shown live on Sky.
Arsenal v United is a unique fixture – the biggest south/north match in English football, but also a game that is largely sold by its past. We all remember the golden age of Roy Keane and Patrick Vieira, Remi Moses and Peter Nicholas, and at times it has felt sad, even pathetic, that such a great fixture has to be sold through nostalgia.
The resurgence of Arsenal under Mikel Arteta has changed that. Since 2022 this game has usually been relevant to the title race, no matter what state United are in, and today is no exception. If Arsenal win they will restore their seven-point lead over Manchester City; but if Michael Carrick’s United™ do unto Arsenal as they did unto City, it will change the mood of this season’s title race. Arsenal, who have drawn their last two league games 0-0, would love a dominant victory to remind everyone what time it is.
United have plenty to play for as well. Despite everything, they are fifth in the table* and will go fourth if they win. It’s not 1st v 2nd, like it was so often between 1997 and 2005. But given the context, 1st v 5th is appealing enough.
Kick off 4.30pm.
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