Arsenal set for familiar test against Bayern Munich
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We've all seen this one before.
The disastrous first-leg surrender putting Arsenal in a near-insurmountable hole before the brave - but ultimately fruitless - second-leg rally as Bayern Munich march on to the Champions League sharp end.
It's a well-worn and painful Groundog Day for Gunners fans to watch through their fingers about this time each and every year.
And with Carlo Ancelotti's men coasting clear in the Bundesliga once more it'll surely simply be a case of more of the same this time around too then?
Well maybe not.
(Photo: REUTERS)
(Photo: Reuters)
This has become one of the European top table's most commonly served dishes of late - the two have drawn each other four times in the last five seasons, the most recent of which only last year in the tournament group stages.
The Gunners split the series that time around, winning at the Emirates before going on to lose - badly - at the Allianz Arena a month later.
Sadly for Arsenal the latter has very much become the norm in recent times as the Bavarian giants have time and again cut Arsene Wenger's team to ribbons on the game's biggest stage.
So it's understandable then that fans watched on in horror in December when they were drawn out together again in this season's last-16.
And on the face of it you'd be right to feel that way.
After all all is well on the home front as ever.
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They are unbeaten since November and, despite the challenge from an unfamiliar foe in Red Bull Leipzig, still sit seven points clear at the top and look on course for a fifth league title in a row in Ancelotti's first season in charge.
European progression has been pretty straightforward too with, despite a loss at Atletico and a shock reverse in Russia to FC Rostov, passage to the business end for the five-time winners coming with relative ease.
But despite those positives this Bayern team aren't quite the Bayern team we've so often seen before.
Fresh from three years of attractive results and even more attractive football under Pep Guardiola, Bayern fans are having to get used to Ancelotti's more circumspect and pragmatic playing style.
They're scoring less and have fewer points than this time last year and only scraped past lowly Ingolstadt at the weekend thanks to two injury time goals.
(Photo: Bongarts)
(Photo: Alexander Hassenstein)
With pressure mounting club chairman Karl-Heinz Rummenigge has been moved to publicly back his under-fire manager and his under-performing team.
“There is no need to be pessimistic," he said. "We have seen the team can step it up at the right moment.”
But it's not only on the pitch where chinks in the usually impregnable Bayern armour have begun to show - there are many more off it too.
It began with Thomas Muller , so often their go to in the very biggest moments, appearing to fall out of favour in the new regime with Lothar Matthaus calling into question just how suited he is to Ancelotti's system.
Just a single goal in 17 appearances this term suggest the club legend may well be right.
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Then came Douglas Costa who only last week made the not so subtle - and extremely public - hint he wants an improved deal with the club.
"We got some strong offers from China and also from big clubs from Europe. When the season is over, we will sit down and analyse everything," he told Bild .
That move in turn went down particularly poorly with the powers that be with the Brazilian's efforts blasted as a "desperate attempt" by club president Uli Hoeness.
But it is Philipp Lahm's decision to announce his retirement - against the club's wishes - and walk away from the place he has called home since the age of 11 that has really upset the balance.
(Photo: REUTERS)
(Photo: 2016 Getty Images)
Club captain Lahm will leave at the end of the season and although likely to return back to the fold one day his exit after nearly 20 years has come as a significant shock to the system.
Structural changes and Lahm's diminished role as a result of them are believed to have been the reason behind him turning down the chance to take over as sporting director from Matthias Sammer, who left last summer, despite long being Rummenigge's preferred choice to do so.
Hoeness for his part has so far refused to rule out Max Eberl, currently general manager at Borussia Monchengladbach, for the role.
What is left is something of a vacuum and a level of uncertainty rarely seen at a club so used to being in complete control.
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Whether the flux at board level, change of manager and dressing room unrest is filtering down into performances on the pitch is impossible to know.
And whether the crown ever so slightly slipping is enough for Arsenal, themselves in the midst of their own annual crisis, to capitalise and finally stop the Groundhog cycle remains to be seen.
But what is for sure is Arsenal's most familiar of foes appear to not actually be so familiar this time around - and we certainly haven't seen that before.