The bookies appear to have already written off West Bromwich Albion.
Based on the fact that the Baggies' next two opponents are Arsenal and Manchester United, one leading firm last night made Bryan Robson's men as short odds as 1-5 favourites to go down.
But from within the Albion camp, the spirit remains as high, the belief as strong, the hope eternal. And why not, when they are still on the same total, 30 points, as their two main rivals Norwich City and Crystal Palace?
"We'll have to do it the hard way now but there is no reason why we can't," said Robson, following Tuesday night's disappointing 1-1 home draw with Blackburn Rovers. "We feel we can still pull this off.
"If someone had told us two-and-a-half months ago we were going to be level with the teams at the bottom for the last three games, with two of them at home, we'd have taken it and now we're just going to have a right good go at it."
Arsenal, next up on Monday night, do look intimidating opposition but Albion have already shared the spoils with the Gunners once this season, in only Robson's second game in charge back in November. And they are a team, just like United, with one eye already on the FA Cup Final in 23 days' time.
"I'm not bothered whether our next game is Arsenal or not," said Robson. "We went down to Highbury and put in a good performance and gave them a tough game. Now we've got home advantage and we've got to get about our business and give them another tough game.
"The lads are really working hard for each other and putting everything in and that's all you can ask for as a manager."
It will not have been forgotten either by Robson, when in a similar scrape four years ago trying to keep Middlesbrough in the top flight, that it was a 3-0 win against Arsenal (and at Highbury too) which went a long way to sealing Boro's survival.
Despite having overseen those two dropped Baggies points on Tuesday night, Blackburn boss Mark Hughes still has faith in his old Manchester United team-mate to complete the job.
"It is a real difficult situation for him," said Hughes. "But it is one he knows and he has done a fantastic job up until now.
"If anyone can get them out of it, it's Bryan because of the qualities he has as a man and a person."
Regardless of what Robson can say or do, though, it is the mood in the Albion dressing room that counts for most.
The Baggie boys looked nervous on Tuesday night, a feeling of unease that did not take long to spread to the terraces. It will take more than playing the theme from The Great Escape every ten minutes or so to lift the spirits for Arsenal's visit. At least the players are saying all the right things.
"We can win all of our last three games if we believe it," claims defender Martin Albrechtsen. "The fixtures look difficult but we can take heart from the fact that Norwich beat Man United and Palace beat Liverpool.
"It's only football, so anything can happen and, of course, it is going to be very difficult. We were a bit tired at the end after three games in six days and we could have still played a little better than we did but the big sides can be beaten and we're going to go for it.
"With Southampton having to play Norwich and Palace, someone is going to drop points there."
"There is a twist and turn with every match but it's still in our own hands," said fellow defender Ricky Scimeca.
"We've got to win our games. You still look at the others' results, but we can only concentrate on what we are doing. There are so many ups and downs in terms of results, I don't think anyone is going to predict what is going to happen."
Anyone except those wise old birds the bookies, that is. They don't get much wrong, do they?
