Thomas Tuchel and Pep Guardiola will locks horns once again when their Chelsea and Manchester City sides collide on Saturday.
The two bosses have crossed paths numerous times before during their spells managing in Germany and England and will pit their wits against each other for the ninth time this weekend.
Saturday's hugely anticipated battle between two of this generation's finest tacticians provides an intriguing sub-plot to what will be an early season acid test for both Chelsea and City's title ambitions.
Tuchel can enter the match with the comfort of knowing he's beaten Guardiola every time he's faced him with Chelsea, but that will surely only serve as extra motivation for the Manchester City boss to set the record straight, having not come out on top against him over 90 minutes since 2015.
Here, Sportsmail take a closer look at their head-to-head record and at what happened in their previous meetings.
Thomas Tuchel and Pep Guardiola face off for the ninth time in their careers on Saturday
Chelsea lifted the Champions League after beating Manchester City in their last meeting
It was a bit of a mismatch when Pep Guardiola and Thomas Tuchel first faced off in the dugout. Guardiola's Bayern Munich side trounced Tuchel's Mainz 4-1, with Arjen Robben, Thomas Muller and Mario Mandzukic all getting on the scoresheet back in 2013.
In fairness, Tuchel was always facing an uphill battle against Guardiola's Bayern, who were - and still are - a dominant force in Germany and one of the best teams in Europe.
Guardiola's Bayern Munich hammered Tuchel's Mainz in their first match back in 2013
It was a familiar story in the reverse fixture that season, with Guardiola's Bayern running out comfortable winners.
Bastian Schweinsteiger and Mario Gotze secured the three points that afternoon for Bayern, who would go on to become the Bundesliga champions that year. Tuchel, who ended up leading Mainz to an impressive seventh-place finish, left his role at the end of the campaign after a five-year spell with the club.
3. Bayern Munich 5-1 Borussia Dortmund (October, 2015)After turning Mainz into perennial overachievers, Tuchel was given an opportunity the following year to take charge of Borussia Dortmund. Before taking the job, Tuchel had spent time discussing tactics with Guardiola at a Munich restaurant, using salt and pepper shakers to illustrate figurative players.
The two shared deep-thinking football brains and a mutual respect that never diminished even when Tuchel's Dortmund threatened to steal Bayern's Bundesliga crown in 2015-16. After their first meeting in the Der Klassiker, it appeared as though Guardiola had Tuchel's number and would stroll to the title, with Bayern claiming a 5-1 victory. But Tuchel would finally end Guardiola's winning streak against him
