Bukayo Saka and Jack Grealish's friendship was put on hold for 90 minutes as Arsenal faced Aston Villa in the Premier League on Saturday afternoon.
The England internationals have been exchanging complimentary messages over social media in recent weeks and were in direct battle at Villa Park with the Gunners wonderkid starting the game on the right-hand side.
Following Arsenal's 3-1 win over Southampton last month where Saka got on the scoresheet and claimed an assist for Alexandre Lacazette, he took to Instagram and posted: "Goal, assist and 3 points. Perfect Tuesday night. Enjoy Gunners," alongside a number of emojis.
Grealish quickly responded with a simple comment that read: "Starboyyyyyy," alongside an emoji of a shooting star and a football.
And a week before the game, Saka repaid the compliment by heavily praising Grealish when speaking with Gunners legend Ian Wright.
When asked which player he's been most impressed by - presumably in the England squad - in the flesh, Saka responded by naming Grealish and said: "Wow."
For just over an hour at Villa Park, Saka was tasked with helping Hector Bellerin to double up on Grealish in order to stop the attacking midfielder from repeating his performance in the 3-0 win at the Emirates Stadium in the reverse meeting earlier in the season.
However, as noticed by Arsenal fans, it was a case of role reversed as Saka was the one who came in for extra attention from Grealish.
In fact, Grealish committed a number of fouls on Saka in the first-half.
Take a look at what's been said about what Grealish did to Saka on Twitter...
Grealish did end up having the last laugh.
Mikel Arteta's side were rocked inside the opening minute when Bertrand Traore capitalised on a mistake from Cedric to square for Ollie Watkins to break the deadlock.
That proved to be the only goal of the game as Arsenal lost a third successive game at the hands of Villa and Grealish.
