Manchester United's game at Arsenal on Saturday is the latest chapter in one of English football's greatest rivalries and, for the visiting fans, will conjure memories of a famous night almost 24 years ago to the day.
On Nov. 28, 1990, Alex Ferguson's United side visited Arsenal's old Highbury ground for a League Cup fourth-round tie ... and won 6-2.
Lee Sharpe, then a 20-year-old winger, was the Highbury hero, scoring a hat trick that put him on the fast track to stardom and celebrity as a "pop star footballer" before the likes of Ryan Giggs and David Beckham came along.
Sharpe reckons that he can pick out "a dozen to 20 games which stand out" from his career of 263 United games. Thankfully, that night is one.
"I was flying that year," he told me a few years later. "When I scored that hat trick, it was like I'd achieved my life's ambition ... and then I went back to my cold digs in Salford to reflect on it. I did a few interviews with papers, which the manager bollocked me for."
Ferguson and Sharpe often failed to see eye-to-eye, and the player was eventually sold to Leeds in 1996, but five years earlier he was the rising star after those three goals helped inflict Arsenal's worst home defeat in 50 years. That Arsenal side would become champions that season.
In a game only a month earlier, Arsenal and United had been involved in a 21-man brawl, for which both clubs were deducted points. It's still the only time in English football that two teams have lost points due to player misconduct.
In truth, the result stunned supporters. United had triumphed in just one of their first six away league games in 1990-91, a run of form not dissimilar to this term, which has seen Louis van Gaal's side fail to win in five away from Old Trafford.
Three days after the rout, United visited Everton in the league. The cold and mist of Merseyside ensured there were few takers among the 4,500 traveling fans for the "Highbury massacre" T-shirts being peddled for 5 pounds outside the away end at Goodison Park; the shirts were produced quickly by Mancunian grafters to celebrate the Highbury win.
The star of the shirt is Sharpe, who is pictured wheeling away from Highbury's North Bank stand, arms open in celebration, looking like the coolest man in the world in an acid blue away shirt.
"Reds on the rampage" is also inscribed on a garment that would have done well to survive as many washes as United scored goals that night.
We put "Rave On Sharpey" on the front cover of the United We Stand fanzine, attempting to encapsulate the mood of the "Madchester" music movement, which saw Sharpe as a regular in the clubs about town.
That game remains one of the greatest away matches I've attended. I was still at school, and three of us took the afternoon off to travel from Manchester to London, not that I recall informing our teachers of our absence.
We played a prank, informing one of our party that he'd have to travel eight hours to London and back in the boot of the car, adding that we'd stop once each way to pass him some water.
He believed us and was far from happy about the situation, but as he had a ticket -- which were priced 7 pounds for adults and 3.50 for juniors, a far cry from the 59 pounds (which includes a 5-pound Premier League subsidy) that adult United fans will pay to enter the Emirates on Saturday -- he was prepared to travel. Naturally, he was delighted when he found out he had a seat and wouldn't be lying on his side from north to south.
Prematch conjecture focused on the likelihood of another brawl on the pitch, but that was soon forgotten when United went a goal up after a minute. It was 3-0 by halftime. None of the 6,000 United fans in a crowd of 40,844 could believe it.
Arsenal came out attacking in the second half, and two Alan Smith goals reduced the deficit to 3-2 after 69 minutes. United had been beaten by the same score at home vs. Chelsea in their previous game, and another loss to a London team was feared. But United had Sharpe and, on the other wing, Danny Wallace.
Sharpe scored twice in three minutes and United led 5-2, which led to a chant of "1-2, 1-2-3, 1-2-3-4, 5-2!" It only happened once, mind, before Wallace made it 6-2 with nine minutes left. "This is so easy," crowed the visiting hordes who weren't used to gloating -- United had finished 13th the previous season.
"That was my best United game," Wallace told me. "Me on the left, Sharpey on the right. He scored three, but I scored one and was involved in four other goals."
Wallace had joined United from Southampton in 1989 for a considerable fee of 1.2 million pounds.
"After nine and a half years at Southampton, I wanted a new challenge," he explained. "The young lads like my brothers [Rodney and Ray], Alan Shearer and Matt Le Tissier were coming through, and it was time to move.
"I was delighted that Manchester United wanted to sign me. I moved into the Ramada hotel in the city alongside two other new signings, Gary Pallister and Paul Ince. I moved with my family and my dog, a rottweiler. The hotel weren't too impressed with the dog, especially when I walked it in the car park."
Ferguson said that Highbury game was "Wallace's finest display for us, and Lee Sharpe was irresistible."
The manager added that the win was "the most amazing performance in my time at Manchester United," and it proved a key point in his reign at the club, providing clear evidence that his sides could attack with wingers and that he could make bold decisions and blood young talents, even against the best.
United grew in confidence, and performances improved that season, culminating in a European Cup Winners' Cup victory against Barcelona in Rotterdam.
Now, fans want similar evidence of Van Gaal's ideas taking root. Another 6-2 at Arsenal would do the trick.