Two of the best from the second tier of Europe's elite clubs, Arsenal and Borussia Dortmund have had a habit of playing each other regularly in the Champions League group stages.
In fact this season is the third time that they have been grouped together in four years.
Yet last season, Dortmund manager Jurgen Klopp was accentuating their differences when he described Arsenal's style as "orchestral" and his own vision as "heavy metal".
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Going beyond lazy stereotypes of metal, both forms of music are highly technical if a little different in their tempo which is exactly what Klopp meant.
But more unites them. Like Arsenal, Dortmund have had to deal with a huge number of injuries in recent seasons and secondly they have often been pillaged of talent by European football's vultures.
The latter has been less of an issue for Arsenal in the last two summers. But for Dortmund they are adjusting to life without mercurial Polish striker Robert Lewandowski who became the second Borussia star to make the move in Bayern Munich in successive summers after Mario Gotze.
The 2011 and 2012 German champions have attempted to address Lewandowski's loss by bringing in three strikers: Adrian Ramos from Hertha Berlin, Italy international Ciro Immobile and South Korean Ji Dong won who had a brief spell at Sunderland.
Ji was expected to be a back-up but it is still too early to judge Immobile's impact given that the Bundesliga is only three games old.
The 24-year-old started the 2 - 0 opening day defeat to Bayer Leverkusen and played a portion of the Freiburg match, but has yet to find the scoresheet. The signing from Torino won the Capocannioniere (Serie A top scorer award - and if you like Italian soccer terminology, look up trequartista, regista and Scudetto) with 22 goals last season but he does divide opinion despite moving ahead of Mario Balotelli in the Italy pecking order. Whether he adapts to a new league at his most high-profile club to date - he was never more than a fringe player at Juventus - and has the ability to replace a brilliant goalscorer and combination striker like Lewandowski is another matter. Add in the fact that he has barely any European experience which can also be said of the other new forward.
Colombian Ramos, who netted 16 Bundesliga goals for Hertha last season, started the Freiburg match and found the net, adding to the goal he scored against Augsburg the previous matchday.
The other major additions are Shinji Kagawa who returns into the welcome arms of a manager who always appreciated his talents. The former Manchester United attacking midfielder only lasted about an hour in the weekend win over SC Freiburg but he did get on the scoresheet on his return to an over-joyed Westfalenstadion.
Versatile Germany international Matthias Ginter was also brought in from Freiburg during the summer and adds more depth in defence and defensive midfield and the 20-year-old gives Klopp an option in a team hit by those aforementioned injuries and fitness issues.
Serbian centre-half Neven Subotic only returned from a serious knee injury recently. Star man Marco Reus is out with another ankle injury and sought-after defender Mats Hummels has been dogged by injury issues.
That's without mentioning long-term injury victim Ilkay Gundogan, Kuba Blaszczykowski's latest knee problem and the fact that ex-Liverpool midfielder Nuri Sahin and left-back Marcel Schmelzer are all ruled out of the Arsenal game.
But this team does have raw pace further up the pitch to hurt Arsenal in the shape of Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang in particular, while Henrikh Mkhitaryan has a full season at Dortmund under his belt and defensive midfielder Sven Bender looks to be back to fitness.
The high-tempo approach will be similar as will the 4-2-3-1 formation, although Klopp experimented with a diamond against Leverkusen due to injuries.
However, for Arsene Wenger, the Arsenal manager will have fond memories of last season's visit to the Rhine region after Aaron Ramsey's winner and given that Dortmund have already conceded six goals in three games, the Frenchman will hope to exploit any potential weaknesses.
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