After a delayed kick-off was caused by a flood of FC Koln fans without tickets causing unrest in the game, Arsenal will have wanted to get off to a good start with so many away fans packed into The Emirates.
Instead, they found themselves staring a disaster in the face as they went 1-0 down after just 10 minutes thanks to Jhon Cordoba who pounced on a David Ospina error to score from 40 yards.
The half-time whistle came and went with the Gunners feeling like visitors in their own back-yard, but at the break Arsene Wenger made a change that proved to be a very good one.
Within minutes of coming on, summer signing Sead Kolasinac scored a cracking volley to level the scores, and as he had recently arrived from FC Koln's rivals Schalke, he decided to remind the thousands of away fans where his loyalties lie in Germany.
While celebrating his goal, the Bosnian international lifted up his jersey to show a Schalke 'Nordkurve' shirt, which is the area that the club's ultras occupy for home matches.
Kolasinac revealed a Schalke jersey to the Koln fans when he scored. What a hero. pic.twitter.com/Ubm7TNQzdB
— Renato (@th14Renato) September 14, 2017
Kolasinac trolling Köln fans with Schalke shirt https://t.co/IcIcvwxAQ9
— Raphael Honigstein (@honigstein) September 14, 2017
Not likely to make him the most popular man in The Emirates tonight, which is crazy to say considering he scored a vital equaliser for the home side having been brought on as a sub.
Still, it was quite clearly pre-planned, so if anything you've got to respect a full-back backing himself to get a goal in such a way.
