Tottenham will always be the fierce derby day rival, and Liverpool are comfortably the best team in the world. There’s history with Manchester United and local bragging rights on the cards with Chelsea, but right now beating Manchester City means more to Arsenal fans than anything else.

Pep Guardiola’s side have long been the yardstick, short of which this Arsenal team have twice fallen agonisingly short of. The manifestation of precisely what they have not achieved in the last two years.

City are not at the peak of their powers, it’s true, but the psychological boost of not just toppling the soon-to-be deposed reigning champions, but battering them, is just what Arsenal need to somehow reign in runaway heirs apparent Liverpool.

Defeating City may not mathematically get them back on top of Liverpool, but make no mistake, it is the reminder they need that the season is not yet over.

Yet there’s more to it than that. Perhaps to his side’s detriment, there is an argument that taking down his former employers is precisely what Mikel Arteta built this side for.

There are echoes of the Man City side that tussled time and again with Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool in their set up, but with the deliberate stubbornness and physicality to counter the flamboyant artistry of Guardiola’s side in their pomp.