Here we go – the moment of truth, Amen Corner, the spaghetti western shoot-out between Clint Eastwood and Ramon Rojo.
Perhaps analogies about fistfuls of dollars are unhelpful when Manchester City are facing more than a hundred allegations of financial doping, but they will ride into town with Arsenal feeling the first twitches of intestinal nerves in the title race.
Who wins? Not to put too fine a point on it, the team that remains stout of heart and firm of rectum. Or, as Sherlock Holmes almost observed, “Alimentary, my dear Watson.”
Gunners warhorse Granit Xhaka took the pulse ahead of Wednesday night's duel and called it right: “It's big – for them, for us, so let's see.”
And Leandro Trossard, whose first goal for Arsenal was impinged by two dropped points, told the leaders to keep their heads up after Brentford extended the Premier League's longest current unbeaten run to 10 games.
First things first, because it overshadowed the match and could yet have a colossal influence on the title race. Brentford were excellent and deserved at least a point, but the outstanding Ivan Toney's equaliser should not have stood.
On another dreadful weekend for the worthless junk that is VAR, Lee Mason – the hapless official in charge of the dashboard at Stockley Park – had a mare. But the bottom line is that Arsenal missed the boat.
Trossard, who has already scored against City for Brighton this season, admitted: “It’s a tough one to take. It's always a missed opportunity if you were leading, especially when we knew what they wanted to do.
"We knew their game plan, that they were strong on set pieces, and yet that’s how we conceded the goal. Overall we have to lift our heads up - there is a game on Wednesday and we can go at it again.
The Gunners have scored just once in three games, which is less a comment on Eddie Nketiah's first mini-drought since he deputised for crocked ex-City striker Gabriel Jesus than Bukayo Saka and Gabriel Martinelli making fewer inroads down the flanks. On the only occasion Saka found a way round the back of the Bees' congested box, he teed up Trossard's ice-breaker at the far post.
And if Toney's equaliser was a mess – both from a defensive point of view and VAR's latest shambles – it hinted at a more brittle mentality among Mikel Arteta's players. Earlier this season, Trossard's goal would have been decisive. One-nil to the Arsenal, game, set and natch.
Now, for the first time, they look fallible. Instead of cutting opponents to ribbons like Edward Scissorhands, they are more like Eddie the Eagle – the fans still hope for a happy ending but fear a crash-landing.
Xhaka said: “We know (some teams) are going to drop deep, hoping for set-pieces or second balls or something else, and we are training for that as well, but it is not always easy. Brentford did a good job without the ball - but if you break them like we did with the 1-0, you have to take the three points.”
So bring on City – if it's as fractious as Arsenal's last meeting with the Blue Moon at the Etihad, on New Year's Day 2022, it will make the controversy over Brentford's equaliser look like a baptist church coffee morning.
“If we are honest, we are not speaking about them,” claimed Xhaka unconvincingly. “We are looking at ourselves, game by game. And Wednesday is big - for them, for us. So, let’s see.”
