From prom queen to bridesmaids and now caterers toting trays of finger food while the spotlight traces the party's marquee attendees, Manchester United and Arsenal once flew the flag for the English top flight.
Those successes of the 1990s and 2000s appear but a distant memory, as rivals Manchester City, Liverpool, Chelsea, and Tottenham have all vaulted the former Premier League giants, with Sunday's clash at the Emirates providing a different set of implications.
Injury riddled and in shortage of scoring, United visits Arsenal's north London hub sitting fifth on 65 points, now four adrift of its city nemesis, while the Gunners languish in anticipation of missing out on Champions League football for the first time since 1997-98.
Injuries and suspensions
For United, the treatment table resembles a game of Twister. Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Marcos Rojo are certain to miss out, while Luke Shaw, Phil Jones, and Juan Mata face races for fitness.
Paul Pogba and Chris Smalling were both rushed back from injury for Thursday's Europa League win over Celta Vigo, while both Marcus Rashford and Ashley Young limped off in noticeable pain.
United's squad-cum-triage unit prompted Mourinho to preview his team selection for the trip to Islington, telling BBC Sport, "The players that have accumulated lots of minutes are not going to play next weekend." Mourinho mind games or a statement steeped in truth? Who knows.
On the other side of the halfway line, Arsenal is a healthier, fitter squad, though no less capable of playing a decent 90 minutes than Marouane Fellaini wearing tissue boxes for boots.
Shkodran Mustafi has returned to first-team training, which may or may not be a positive, while an ankle/calf injury will keep Granit Xhaka out of contention. A collective sigh of relief just swept over north London as an injury means Xhaka will not be able to continue his streak of four yellow cards per match.
David Ospina is also fit, which means third-choice shot-stopper Emiliano Martinez will enjoy the luxuries of a hospitality suite pre-game before joining Per Mertesacker pitchside for "Eye Spy." Eye Spy with my little eye, two teams that are littered with problems.
Projected lineups
Arsenal starting XI: Cech; Bellerin, Koscielny, Holding, Monreal; Oxlade-Chamberlain, Ramsey; Walcott, Ozil, Sanchez; Giroud
Manchester United starting XI: De Gea; Valencia, Bailly, Smalling, Darmian; Pogba, Herrera; Lingard, Rooney, Martial; Rashford
What to watch
Arsenal's failures against the Premier League's top sides are well documented, though no less worthy of a second glance. This season, against the league's current top five, the Gunners have amassed six points, with three of those coming against Chelsea before the table-topper switched to a 3-4-3 formation.
The first meeting between Arsenal and United at Old Trafford in November ended in a 1-1 draw, with Olivier Giroud nicking a point with an 89th-minute equaliser. It was the only point the north London lot would secure away from home against the top five.
From Arsenal's perspective, the squad is littered with established players performing well below their potential, with erratic displays from Alexis Sanchez and Mesut Ozil perhaps the most alarming issues. It appears as if half the players are looking forward to the sun and sand of Santorini and not the club's slim chances of a top-four finish.
Like a puppy who helps you snag a date only to eat your expensive wingtips the following day, Wenger's 3-4-2-1 attempt has been an effervescent experiment in the erratic. Growing pains in a win over Middlesbrough led to an uncharacteristically defensive display in bouncing City from the FA Cup, and for the briefest of moments, Arsenal supporters were appeased. It worked, to a degree, against a Leicester City side that appeared annoyingly disinterested before it was ditched in the second stanza of the north London beatdown. Back to square one, and considering United's atrocious attack and Arsenal's newfound struggles in pushing forward, reverting to the 4-4-2 or a 4-2-3-1 Sunday might be a wise move.
On the topic of United's dire offense, Jose Mourinho and Co. lead the league and Europe's top five divisions with an obscene 14 draws, signalling a struggle to kill off matches.
Zlatan Ibrahimovic is out, Wayne Rooney might as well be, and Anthony Martial has played as authentic a Jekyll and Hyde routine this season as any of the Red Devils. That leaves Marcus Rashford and a voucher for a complimentary bag of prawn cocktail crisps as Mourinho's only forwards, though considering the England international's exploits against Arsenal, it may be enough.
Three days after becoming United's youngest-ever scorer in European competition following a Europa League brace a year ago against Moneyball maverick Midtjylland, Rashford made his Premier League debut against Arsenal. He scored a three-minute double and assisted on Ander Herrera's goal in a 3-2 victory that essentially sunk the ghastly Gunners' title hopes. From a chance to draw two points behind leader Leicester to sitting in third, five points adrift; Arsenal fans won't soon forget Rashford's efforts that day, and a repeat performance could see burning effigies of Wenger lining Holloway Road.
Having admitted that he'll start a threadbare squad Sunday at the Emirates, Mourinho doesn't have a lot of options, and with the Europa League providing United's most realistic Champions League hopes, it's unlikely the Red Devils will do much beyond defending.
(Photos courtesy: Action Images)