The smoke of battle thickened in the UEFA Champions League Group Stage as the sixth and final round arrived on schedule.
After five hard-fought rounds, Arsenal had secured first place in their group with an invincible record of five wins from five.
Their goal difference, goals scored, and points total led the entire group stage by enormous margins.
The dynasty's armada had thoroughly conquered European football with its dominance in the UEFA Champions League.
For the final group match, Arsenal traveled to Belgium.
They faced Anderlecht, an established powerhouse of the Belgian First Division A, in their last group-stage fixture.
Compared with Arsenal's commanding qualification, Anderlecht's fate had long since been sealed.
After five group matches, the Belgian giants had a dismal record and sat bottom of the standings.
With no hope of turning things around or advancing, they had lost any chance of remaining in European competition.
For Anderlecht, the final group match no longer had anything to do with survival or qualification.
Its only significance was preserving the team's last shred of dignity.
They had no need to dig in for a point or fear defeat, and no tactical constraints remained.
For precisely that reason, both teams approached the match with nothing weighing on their minds, though their tactical plans differed sharply.
Anderlecht's head coach publicly declared that his side would not sit back and defend in their final match.
They would push forward in force and trade attacks, bidding farewell to this season's UEFA Champions League campaign with dazzling attacking football.
Even if they lost to the rulers of the Premier League and Europe, they would still show their own style and fighting spirit.
Rather than take a passive beating and suffer an ugly exit, they would go all out in attack and bow out with flair.