Money talks in football, and today it will be shouting from the rooftops as nouveau riche Manchester City host Chelsea, whose owner Roman Abramovich has been usurped from his position as the Premier League's richest man by City's new investors from Abu Dhabi.
The fixture list could not have been planned any better, with City's soaring ambitions given an immediate test by one of the Premier League establishment in front of a global television audience.
For a touch of added intrigue, City's #32.5m (HK$444 million) forward Robinho is set to make his debut, having been snatched from Chelsea's grasp just before the transfer window closed.
Whether City can escape the Chelsea stranglehold is another matter. Chelsea have won the last six league meetings with City, who have beaten the Londoners only once in 14 attempts since returning to the Premier League in 2000. Since that win, almost four years ago, City have not scored in seven games against Chelsea and overall they have failed to score in 11 of their 14 league meetings, losing 12 times.
Those figures will be familiar to Mark Hughes, City's new manager. During his time at Blackburn, Hughes had similar difficulty against Chelsea, losing six out of eight league meetings - as well as both cup games - and winning only once. Blackburn failed to score in six of those eight league games, mirroring City's poor record at breaching Chelsea's defence.
Chelsea have ranked first or second on away form in each of the past five seasons, with an average away win rate of 66%, which rises to 73% when visits to other members of the big four are excluded. It is more than two years since they lost on the road against a team that did not go on to finish in the top six.
On those figures it might be expecting too much for City to match Chelsea just yet, and the league leaders rate a decent bet at the odds.