Police have called on feuding managers Arsene Wenger and Sir Alex Ferguson to end their war of words ahead of next month's Arsenal-Manchester United match at Highbury, amidst worries the ongoing row could provoke crowd trouble.
Officers who will police the February 1 match at Arsenal's Highbury ground are becoming increasingly concerned by the bosses' spat and have joined the League Managers' Association in asking both men to tone down their act.
Last weekend the row escalated when Ferguson labelled Wenger "a disgrace" for not apologising following their tunnel row at Old Trafford in October where United's 2-0 win in an ill-tempered match ended Arsenal's English top-flight record of 49 unbeaten matches.
It was also after that game, the so-called 'Battle of the Buffet', which saw Ferguson pelted with pizza and soup reportedly thrown from the Arsenal dressing room.
Following Ferguson's latest outburst, Wenger hit back with the Frenchman saying the Scot was "bringing the game into disrepute" and had "lost all sense of reality".
Arsenal and Manchester United have monopolised the Premiership title between them since Blackburn won the league in the 1994-95 season.
But their next meeting has been given added spice by the fact that a defeat for either team could kill off their Premiership hopes this season.
Arsenal, currently second, are 10 points behind leaders and London rivals Chelsea with United a point further back in third place.
For all the talk of 'a peace summit' between Ferguson and Wenger, such a meeting looks as unlikely as ever.
Meanwhile Barry Norman, the Metropolitan Police's commander for Islington, the north London borough in which Highbury is located, told Wednesday's London Evening Standard: "Any activity in the build-up to the game which increases the intensity and hostility of the supporters is not responsible and should be stopped.
"If there is intense rivalry between the two sets of fans, which there is, then anything which increases that is unhelpful."
Norman, who heads up the match-day security operation at Highbury, insisted police had a good relationship with Arsenal but stressed: "The difference with the United game is simply that the intense playing rivalry can permeate into the crowd.
"People can easily become more agitated and aggressive towards supporters of the other team," he added.
Some 180 officers will be on duty at Highbury for the United match, double the average number for most Arsenal games.
Football Association chairman Geoff Thompson had harboured hopes of brokering a meeting between the clubs after the October flare-up but that was dismissed by both clubs as Arsenal vice-chairman David Dein and Manchester United chief executive David Gill get on with one another.
But neither seems either willing or indeed able to restrain their respective managers from ever more intemperate outbursts.
Gill and Dein are set to meet again at a Premier League shareholders' meeting in London on Thursday but they are unlikely to issue any kind of public call for calm.