Among three billion viewers worldwide across 188 countries on 400 channels, no Premier League game has been more eagerly awaited in Scandinavia than the Norse of the Year show.
When Martin Odegaard leads out Arsenal, and Manchester City fans wait to discover if 31-goal Erling Haaland is fit for the title shoot-out at the Emirates, in Norway their duel will be celebrated as completion of a nation's football makeover.
When the Norwegian national team hoisted long balls towards tall strikers under former Wimbledon manager Egil Olsen, in some quarters they were branded heretics for their direct style. Now Odegaard and Haaland are rivals for Footballer of the Year in England. One man's toasted sandwich is another man's smorgasbord, but the friends on Norway's national team group chat will be arch-rivals for 90 minutes.
The Gunners captain has not been surprised by Haaland's massive impact at City, saying: "I've seen him for the last few years and the level he is on he will score goals. He is a great player, an unbelievable goalscorer.
"We have a little group chat with some of the boys from the national team, we speak in there a lot but we haven't spoken about the game.
"It's an important game, it's a top of-the-table game and there's a lot of history with these teams, but you have to take it as a normal game, do what we always do and really go for it to get the result that we want."
A decade ago, Norsk Toppfotball – a think-tank for the teams in Norway's top two divisions – organised a £4 million investment to develop young players and raise the country's overall standard of football.
Norway missed out on a place at the 2022 World Cup and still have not played at a major finals since 2000, but now they have 27 players operating in the top five European leagues, more than at any point in their history.
Odegaard's class and Haaland's prolific strike-rate have become a standard-bearers in Scandinavia and Leif Overland, chief executive of the Norwegian Professional Football League, said: "It is really special,
"A match with the two highest-profile in Norway meeting sums up this development programme. I think it is a huge inspiration for all of the kids now. We used to have kids running around in shirts with English names on the back - now they have Norwegian names.
"We will just celebrate, it is so special. I gave the highest prize (the Kniksen's Award) in Norway to Martin Odegaard and we have Erling too, it is so special and ultimate proof this programme has worked."
