The feud which once simmered between Sir Alex Ferguson and Arsene Wenger has long since come off the boil, but the Manchester United manager would still find it hard to suppress a smile if he inflicted a final ignominy on his old rival on Sunday.
Meetings between these two English Premier League giants always quicken the pulse, but it is no exaggeration to state that Arsenal travel to Old Trafford in disarray.
A season which once promised to be Wenger's finest since taking over in north London in 1996 has collapsed around him in the last 10 weeks, during which his side has been knocked out of both domestic cup competitions and seen their hopes of winning back the league title all but extinguished.
Last Tuesday's late Champions League heartbreak at Liverpool represented perhaps the most grievous blow to Wenger, who now faces a Herculean task in restoring morale ahead of the daunting trip to United.
Defeat would effectively end Arsenal's title challenge and, given the memories of the 4-0 FA Cup thrashing in February are still painfully fresh, Wenger would be forgiven travelling north in trepidation.
Arsenal's players have at least attempted to put on a brave face as they confront D-Day and, if Emmanuel Adebayor is to be believed, Wenger still retains the faith of the dressing room.
"We have the boss to lift us," he said. "He will talk about that for sure. We will meet at the training ground and he will tell us what to do. He has more experience than anyone here and he knows the words to use so that we can come back on the pitch, be more successful and want it more.
"The most important thing now is to stay focused on what we can achieve this season. We are still playing for the title and we still believe we can win something at the end of the season.
"We were so close to the Champions League semi-finals but football decided it the other way. As a player, these things are very difficult to take but it is better now to focus on the game on Sunday. It will be another big game for us and we will see what we can do."
Arsenal's problem is how to ruffle the feathers of a United side who currently have the confident strut and swagger of champions-elect. Ferguson's team marched imperiously into the last four of the Champions League with a routine win over Roma on Wednesday and have not tasted defeat in the league since losing at home to Manchester City in February.
United might have stumbled slightly at Middlesbrough last week but such results remain anomalies and given the confidence coursing through Ferguson's players, it seems inconceivable that they will fail to tighten their grip on the Premier League trophy on Sunday.
With nearest rivals Chelsea facing the treacherous prospect of two games in four days next week, it is even possible United's trip to Stamford Bridge later this month will be largely irrelevant.
"The games against Arsenal and Chelsea are the two big ones," Ferguson said. "They are fantastic occasions which all the players look forward to. It's best if you go into the games in decent form and I think our form is decent.
"It will be a great game on Sunday. As we know Arsenal have been our main competitor for 13 years or whatever and it's not going to change on Sunday. It will be a hard-fought match and hopefully we will take the spoils."
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