It may only be September but Manchester City's trip to Arsenal on Sunday already feels like a significant one in terms of the title race with Liverpool already clear at the Premier League summit.
The Gunners have been tipped as the team most likely to wrestle the domestic crown away from Arne Slot's team. City will have title aspirations of their own, though, after winning an unprecedented four-in-a-row prior to their collapse last season.
Arsenal will know they cannot afford to lose to another title rival after falling 1-0 to Liverpool last month. And City are already making up ground and could end the weekend a staggering nine points behind the champions if they do leave the Emirates empty-handed.
Here, the Mirror Football team takes a look at the big game and predict how they think it will all pan out...
If Arsenal are serious about finally ending their Premier League title drought, they need to start regularly beating their rivals. This is a perfect opportunity to lay a marker down.
The Gunners went to Liverpool at the end of last month for a 0-0, and very nearly managed it. Only a late Dominik Szoboszlai strike denied them. But a change in mindset is needed. Mikel Arteta needs to start sending his players out to win these games, rather than just trying not to lose. Because they are good enough, and there can no longer be any excuses.
Arteta has been backed in the transfer market and the arrival of Viktor Gyokeres should be the last piece of a title-winning jigsaw. City are still formidable but are in the midst of a rebuild and Arsenal should be taking the game to them.
Arsenal were so disappointing against Liverpool, but this is a chance to instantly make that game a distant memory.
Arteta now has no excuses. He has arguably the best squad in the league and should go into the matches against their title rivals with the ambition to win. That clearly wasn't the priority at Anfield, but it should be a different story against a vulnerable City.
If the Gunners fail to pick up all three points this should feel like a massive missed opportunity. But until I see them actually show that level of ambition, I'm reluctant to assume it will happen.
City looked much better against Manchester United and Phil Foden looked to be approaching his best. I think City will get a point here and Arteta will be left wondering 'what if'.
Arsenal will likely fancy their chances of getting a win over City considering Pep Guardiola's formerly formidable side are now in the midst of a rebuild and should be far more aggressive than they were at Liverpool with home advantage.
But it feels like City are almost being overlooked in the title conversation. They looked good without ever needing to hit top gear in last weekend's Manchester derby and, importantly, the influential duo of Erling Haaland and Phil Foden are firing again. The latter scored against United and was one of City's most influential attacker's in the Champions League in midweek, which bodes well.
Having Foden and Haaland back on song is huge but they are up against the Premier League's best defence. Can you have a must-win game in September? Probably not, but both managers will be thinking they can't really afford to lose with Arsenal already dropping points against Liverpool and City knowing defeat would leave them nine points behind the champions. I'll go for a score draw.
Prediction: Arsenal 2-2 Man City