It was not long before Arsenal were applying pressure and Nasri's free-kick was clawed away before Chamakh rattled the woodwork with a close-range header.

BBC: Arsenal 0-0 Sunderland

He said that while the ban would reinforce the message that such drugs were not safe "it will not be long before other drugs are manufactured to replace it".

BBC: Father blames mephedrone for son's death

To their credit, the hosts refused to buckle in the face of their exalted opponents, but the second half followed a similar pattern to the first and it was not too long before the Blues were ahead.

BBC: Southend 1-4 Chelsea

But don't be too quick to blame the team: "With a case like Russell, if he were not taken in the top two picks it would not have been long before he was, " Brandt says.

FORBES

The conditions on the long journey were so hazardous that it was not uncommon for half the workers to die before they reached the estates.

BBC: Magazine

New Labour's commitment to understand what the public thought and felt came from a time, not long before, when the public were too often considered the enemy, and where it was even said that there should be "no compromise with the electorate".

BBC: Philip Gould: What 'permanent campaign'?

Whether or not Dorner's grudges were legitimate, it's clear from his manifesto that they had consumed him long before he took cover for the last time in a lonely cabin.

BBC: Christopher Dorner: What made a police officer kill?