When Arsenal travel to Stoke City for tomorrow's 3PM kick off, it certainly will not be the clichéd cold, wet Monday night...mostly because tomorrow is actually Saturday and the game is at daytime!
It is usually easy to predict how Arsenal will fare at the Britannia in any given year. Aaron Ramsey will get booed, the Gunners will struggle with the physicality and invariably Arsene Wenger will have fewer than three points to haul back to London.
Mark Hughes may well sing from the hymn sheet many teams blast out when they face Arsenal.
But then again, Stoke have been a little bit strange this season as they continue the evolution made since Tony Pulis's depature.
Last season, the Britannia retained its impregnable nature with just three invaders raiding a full three points. This season, they have already tasted as many defeats at home as they did in the entirety of 2013/14, with Aston Villa, Leicester and Burnley all taking wins on Stoke's hallowed ground.
Some things have not changed of course. Stoke still win the most aerial challenges of any Premier League side (albeit their success rate has dropped), which will be a cause for concern for Arsenal - who are admittedly taller than the team from a few years ago.
But certainly the importance of set piece goals has been reduced since the end of the 2012/13 season. In that campaign, eight corners, four free-kick deliveries and three throw ins resulted in goals.
That fell last season as Stoke fell outside the Top 10 for set piece goals. Three goals came from corners, with another crossed in via a free-kick.
And this season, Stoke are only 17th of 20 teams when it comes to goals scored from set pieces with one goal from a corner.
Stoke still have players capable of causing major problems in the air for Arsenal though, especially when you note that the Gunners are the second worst team when it comes to the number of headed goals conceded this season.
Arsenal have given up six goals from headers, with Burnley the only team to have conceded more.
So, ultimately I just have a feeling that we will see Wenger doing the pose in the picture above.
All stats can be found via leading statistical website, Squawka
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