Saturday's lunchtime kick off sees Arsenal travel to Old Trafford to face a Manchester United team who are two places below their opponents and in need of a positive result.
Jose Mourinho's team have had an indifferent start to the season and already look like they may face an uphill battle to challenge for the title. They will take comfort however from the Gunners' poor record at Old Trafford andagainst their manager, who has yet to lose a Premier League match against Arsene Wenger's team.
Arsenal on the other hand, will be confident of getting a positive result. The Gunners are unbeaten since the opening day of the season and will be keen to right the wrongs from last year's 3-2 defeat against United. A win for Arsene Wenger's men would put them top for a few hours at least, so his players should need little incentive to go for all three points.
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The Red Devils have struggled for consistency all season and have already come up short in games with some of the divisions top teams.
A 2-1 defeat to local rivals Man City was backed up by an even worse 4-0 drubbing at Chelsea in October. United did win their last match against Swansea however and will be keen to show they have the capabilities to beat the top teams.
As mentioned, Arsenal are unbeaten since losing 4-3 to Liverpool in their first match of the season. The Gunners have stalled slightly in their last three league games though having drawn twice at home.
Those four dropped points have seen Wenger's team drop from joint leaders down to fourth, so they will need to ensure they keep pace with free-scoring Liverpool this weekend.
Key Battles
Paul Pogba vs Mesut Ozil
Big games need big players to stand up and there are none bigger than Pogba and Ozil. Both players are their club's record signings and whichever player can out-do the other is likely to have a significant baring on the result.
On current form, Ozil looks like being the bigger threat, but it would be foolish to rule out the world's most expensive player upstaging the German.
Jose Mourinho vs Arsene Wenger
For anyone who doesn't know, Arsene Wenger's record against Jose Mourinho is abysmal. The Frenchman has yet to get the better of his counterpart in the Premier League.
That in itself is a big hurdle for Arsenal to overcome and whilst attention will be on the 22 players who take to the field on Saturday, a lot may depend on whether Wenger can finally find a way toovercome the Mourinho hoodoo.
Team News
Manchester United will be without several first team stars as Chris Smalling and Eric Bailly have been ruled out through injury, whilstLuke Shaw, Antonio Valencia and Maroune Fellaini are all struggling to make the squad with fitness concerns of their own.
Striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic will definitely miss the game, as he serves a one match suspension which meansMarcus Rashford may take up the central strikers berth.
Arsenal meanwhile will be missing Hector Bellerin and Santi Cazorla due to injury. Alexis Sanchez faces a late fitness test after he picked up a calf problem whilst playing for Chile, although it is likely that Wenger will gamble on the striker's fitness and play him.
Theo Walcott is less likely to feature however ashe and his wife are expecting the birth of their second child any day from now, so the Englishman may choose to miss the trip up north altogether.
Potential Manchester United lineup: De Gea; Darmian, Jones, Blind, Rojo; Carrick, Herrera, Pogba; Mata, Rashford, Martial.
Potential Arsenal lineup: Cech; Jenkinson, Mustafi, Koscielny, Monreal; Coquelin, Xhaka; Ramsey, Ozil, Iwobi; Sanchez.
Prediction
As always big matches are hard to call. Arsenal should head into the game as favourites having looked much more fluent than United this season. The home side's chances will also be underminedby their extensive injury list but if anyone can make the most of limited resources, then Jose Mourinho is the man.
His record against Arsenal appears to have a psychological affect over the Gunners, much like their poor record at Old Trafford does.
For that reason, the Red Devils may just triumph against many people's expectations, whilst alsoinflicting a second league defeat on their opponents in the process.
Manchester United 2-1 Arsenal