Manchester City host Norwich on Saturday, under very different circumstances from their previous meeting in the English Premier League.
The last time the two sides played each other in the league was at Norwich s Carrow Road home in March 2005, when the visitors came from two goals down to win 3-2.
Robbie Fowler netted twice for Manchester City, including a 90th-minute winner, and his former Liverpool colleague Steve McManaman was a 33-year-old veteran among the away team s substitutes.
Managed by Kevin Keegan, Manchester City were playing their third season back in the top flight, after sinking as low as the old Division Three in 1998.
For promoted Norwich, it was a solitary Premier League season, ending in relegation when they finished second bottom.
City went on to claim a respectable eighth-place finish in that campaign, but they have since undergone a transformation that has changed the landscape of English football.
The club was taken over by the Abu Dhabi United Group of Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan in 2008.
Enormous outlays on transfers followed, enabling City to qualify for the Champions League last season, and they currently hold a five-point lead at the top of the Premier League table.
Coached by Italian Roberto Mancini, City are yet to lose in the league this term.
They did drop points in a 1-1 draw away to Liverpool last Sunday, but hit back immediately, beating Arsenal 1-0 on Tuesday to reach the Carling Cup semi-finals.
Norwich have also experienced some eventful times in recent years, albeit on a smaller scale to the revolution witnessed in Manchester.
Relegated to League One in 2009, a 7-1 opening-day thrashing at home to Colchester prompted Norwich to acquire the services of Scottish manager Paul Lambert, who was in charge of their tormentors in that landmark fixture.
A Champions League winner as a player with Borussia Dortmund, Lambert sensationally guided Norwich to successive promotions, from League One to the Championship and then on to the Premier League, in his first two seasons in the job.
And so far they are faring better than their last foray into top-flight football; under Lambert Norwich have managed four wins and three draws from 13 matches, and sit 10th in the standings.
Norwich claimed a 1-1 draw the last time they visited City in the league, on November 1, 2004.
But they will be hard pressed to match the result seven years later, when they go up against a star-studded Manchester City team bearing little resemblance to their predecessors.
