Back in vogue: AC Milan and Inter Milan get ready to reignite Serie A rivalry

Years ago, AC Milan and Inter Milan were top of the league, entering the derby against each other in early January - a cold night in a city covered with fog. Feelings were tense, the choreography was perfect: everything meant something. From 2006-11, it was either Inter or Milan winning the Scudetto or the Champions League - or both.

But the results soon soured, the big players left, and the interest waned. In the past four seasons, the Derby della Mandonnina, while still drawing a league-high in attendance, produced utterly dull games. No longer were Paolo Maldini and Javier Zanetti captaining these sides: it was Riccardo Montolivo and Andrea Ranocchia, two players who barely featured for the Italian national team.

There were only seven goals in the past six matches between Milan and Inter. The most incredible choreography even went missing. Officials forbade Milan's ultras from unfurling for one derby in 2013, the result of a discrimination measure, and Inter's Curva Nord decided to pull its own artwork in solidarity.

Here was one of the celebrated fixtures in world football - the La Scala of Serie A - stripped to the bone, the glory and more importantly, the money all gone. Last season ended in ignominy: For the first time in many decades, neither Milan nor Inter qualified for European competition.

So they did something about it, and on Sunday they will clash once again with teams that cost them hundreds of millions of euros to rebuild in the offseason.

Between Milan and Inter, more than a dozen players have never played in the derby before. Carlos Bacca and Luiz Adriano are set to make their debuts in the big game for Milan, and Stevan Jovetic and Geoffrey Kondogbia for Inter.

Milan already lost the summer derby for Kondogbia, who spurned advances from Milan CEO Adriano Galliani to eventually sign (for less money) with Inter. He simply believed more in the Nerazzurri than the Rossoneri.

It is also the return of Mario Balotelli, a Milan fan at heart who has played for both sides in the derby. But he has not yet scored in the fixture. His account is waiting for an opening line. He could come to cement himself as a big player in these games, the way Andriy Shevchenko made himself a legend of the derby. This, too, is Balotelli's history to write.

And then there is the student and the master: Milan coach Sinisa Mihajlovic and Inter boss Roberto Mancini. Mihajlovic worked under Mancini at Inter, and he also played for them at the tail end of his career. He was an Inter man for so long, even saying in an interview years ago that he'd rather "starve to death" than take the Milan job.

But times and circumstances change, and he is embracing his new life as a Milanista like other would-be legends - Andrea Pirlo and Clarence Seedorf chief among them - that left the blue side of Milan for the red. Just on Thursday, it was Mihajlovic joining anti-Inter chants with the Milan fans at the club's headquarters.

Suddenly, there are so many storylines, and suddenly the ticket is hot again. Not only is a sell-out crowd expected on Sunday, but match revenue - around €4 million, according to La Gazzetta dello Sport - is also set to smash records.

This is the way it's supposed to be. The cathedral of Italian football is ready to resume service.