Crystal Palace and Nottingham Forest fans must have thought six months ago that the best was still ahead of them.
FA Cup-winning Palace had just celebrated their first ever major trophy and enjoyed a strong second half of the season after a dreadful winless start. The Europa League beckoned for them as a result.
Forest had meanwhile narrowly missed out on a Champions League place on the final day but then, nobody had expected them to be anywhere near European qualification in the first place.
Nottingham Forest and Crystal Palace both have plenty on the line in potential six-pointer
The problem with hitting those kinds of highs is that history tells us that, as often as not, there is no pushing on to even better things. That really is the pinnacle, after all and that means the only other direction to go is down.
Title-winning Leicester are the biggest cautionary tale for Forest, but there are plenty of others, including the Leeds, Ipswich and Charlton sides of the 2000s, who registered impressive top-half finishes only to end up relegated within a few years. Leeds repeated the trick just a few years ago.
For Palace, there are even more examples to avoid. In the 21st century alone, Leicester (twice over) Blackburn, Middlesbrough, Portsmouth, Birmingham, Wigan and Swansea have all found out what its like to get their hands on cup silverware as a Premier League club, only to be back in the Championship (or lower) not too long afterwards. West Ham are currently on the same trajectory.
Even with all those prior examples in mind, though, it is quite some going for both Palace and Forest to have a state of distress so quickly.
Edus appointment as sporting director has so far been widely regarded an ill-fated and deeply unpopular mis-step. Forest were onto their third manager of the season by October after Nuno Espirito Santo was unable to carry last seasons momentum into this campaign and fell out with the Brazilian. Ange Postecoglou offered absolutely no improvement during his 40-day spell in charge.
The defensive solidity on which Forest built their success last season has been nowhere near, while the goals have dried up too, not helped by Chris Wood going down to a knee injury just before Sean Dyche arrived.
Forest have meanwhile gone out of both the FA Cup and the League Cup to Championship sides at the first hurdle. They remain in the Europa League, but for the time being, their main concern is making sure they stay the right side of the relegation zone; they currently have just a five-point advantage over West Ham.
Palace were meanwhile rocked by their demotion from the Europa League to the Conference League (to Forests benefit) after their FA Cup victory came so unexpectedly that nobody at the club thought to take the necessary steps to avoid a conflict with Lyon under UEFA rules.
The Eagles started the season well regardless, but have only disintegrated from there. There is such a palpable feeling that they have already peaked that players and manager alike have headed for the life rafts. Captain Marc Guehi has gone to Manchester City. Oliver Glasner had already announced he will leave at the end of the season, and perhaps feeling he had nothing to lose, chose to hit out at the club board for that transfer decision. Jean-Philippe Mateta wants out too and won't be playing this weekend as a result amid interest from Forest, as it happens.
Like Forest, Palace too remain in Europe but they also put up arguably the worst ever defence to an FA Cup triumph by immediately going out to sixth-tier Macclesfield in the biggest upset in the competitions history. In the league, they are currently on an eight-game winless streak. Only newly-promoted Burnley have gone longer since their last Premier League victory.
That all gives both sets of fans plenty of reasons to be unhappy going into their meeting at the City Ground on Sunday afternoon but just to add to that toxic atmosphere, both ends of the stadium will also be rather animated.
As the outrageous banner they unveiled at Selhurst Park in the reverse fixture made clear, the Palace ultras feel they were conned out of their European place by UEFA favouritism towards Forest owner Evangelos Marinakis.
Quite why that would be the case is a matter for the desperately conspiratorially minded, who some Forest fans have delighted in winding up.
Throw in the potential implications of this game, and it could be quite the afternoon.
Forest have been better under Dyche, but relegation is still a major concern.
But they are just three points behind Palace, with Leeds sitting in between. Forest will be desperate to pull as many sides as possible into the orbit of the relegation zone to increase their chances of survival particularly after back-to-back wins for West Ham under Nuno, of all people.
Naturally enough, Palace need to avoid that. A defeat really would have them looking back over their shoulders with genuine concern for the first time since Glasner arrived at the club nearly two years ago.
For both sides, the decline has to stop here. Its going to be very interesting on the banks of the Trent this Sunday afternoon.
