Wednesday's clash between West Ham and Everton should see two of the game's great entertainers clash horns, with Toffees new signing David Ginola hoping to impress against Joe Cole in midfield.
At the start of the 2001-02 campaign, West United wonderkid Cole asked manager Glenn Roeder to move him from the centre of the park to left wing, in the hope that he could make England's problem position his own ahead of the 2002 World Cup in Japan/Korea.
However, the move did not prove to be a success and Cole and West Ham's form suffered as a result. Indeed, it was not until Trevor Sinclair was swapped to the left-flank and Cole back to the middle that the Hammers started to climb the table and Cole started to show his worth for the side, completing an impressive 78% of passes to date.
The result is that Cole has been in ever improving form in central midfield, a role in which he knows he has little chance of playing for England with so many players ahead of him in the pecking order. However, success with your country is not everything, as Cole's opposite number on Wednesday Ginola will testify.
Before the emergence of Zinedine Zidane, Ginola was France's unquestioned key playmaker. But inconsistent form for Les Bleus saw him dropped and he was devastated to miss the World Cup win in 1998 despite some wonderful Premiership performances probably meriting him a squad place.
Ginola claimed that the double Player of the Year awards that he picked up in 1999 made up for his disappointment in missing out on Aime Jacquet's squad though, and he remains one of the Premiership's most gifted stars, despite a miserable spell at Aston Villa.
Since leaving the Villans for Everton, Ginola has embarked on a dribble every 3.7 minutes on average and no Premiership player can match that figure. And if the Gallic genius can continue to thrill the viewers with his skills during the rest of his spell at the club, he might well be the man to alleviate the team's discontented fans.
Still it is almost a year since Ginola last set up a Premiership goal and he will need to be more productive to the cause if he is to be a success in Everton's relegation battle. Wednesday's match would be an ideal place to start, and with Cole on show for the Hammers too, it should be an entertaining game for the fans if nothing else.
Rupert Webster