The likes of The Guardian are getting excited about the picture taken on New Year’s Eve in Manchester, and indeed, it’s not just a telling document of our times, but it’s a fantastically composed picture the photographer, Joel Goodman, has taken. To get to that image there’s a few you need to see to get the full picture and to realise just how great an image the one everyone’s talking about is.

The full selection of pictures taken by Goodman is in this gallery posted on the Manchester Evening News’s website. There are some more really good pictures Goodman’s taken (he seems to have an extraordinary eye for a great picture in a load of chaos) but the story starts with this picture.

The situation starts here as the lad in the middle is either squaring up to, or standing up to the two lads in front of him…