Everton's home game against Newcastle United on Thursday is their biggest of the Premier League season. It may be their most important in any Premier League season.
After defeat to Wolverhampton Wanderers on Sunday, the Toffees are on the brink of the top-flight trap door, only out of the relegation zone on goal difference and with a meagre nine points from their last 20 outings.
It's a bleak situation for Frank Lampard and his team, with the significance of the Newcastle clash clear with some brutal assignments on the other side of the international break.
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It's a game made all the more difficult by the resurgence of the visitors, who have done what Everton now have to do themselves - pull themselves out of the relegation mire.
When this fixture was initially scheduled to be played on December 29, Newcastle were in a dire predicament.
Although they had drawn 1-1 with Manchester United in a spirited performance on December 27, they were still on one Premier League win from 19 games.
They also saw key players Callum Wilson and Allan Saint-Maximin hobble out of the showdown with the Red Devils, with both sure to miss a match that was scheduled to take place at Goodison Park a couple of days later.
With the January window still to open, the reinforcements of Kieran Trippier, Chris Wood, Bruno Guimaraes, Matt Targett and Dan Burn had not yet arrived either.
But a request from Newcastle to have the Everton game called off was granted, as a "a number of players and staff" tested positive for Covid-19 on top of injuries suffered by "several players".
It feels like a lifetime ago.
Not only because the flurry of match cancellations for coronavirus outbreaks have since settled down, but Newcastle have embarked on a booming upward trajectory as Everton have spiralled further into trouble.
The Toffees have won just one game in 2022, changing manager and altering the squad with a number of transfers. Since the date of that postponed game, they have been the worst team in the Premier League.
That undesirable label belonged to Newcastle before December 29, but in the months since, only Liverpool, Manchester City, Manchester United and Wolves have taken more points than them. Eddie Howe's team have played one, three and two games less than City, United and Wolves respectively too.
While Everton evidently only have themselves to blame for the peril that currently engulfs them, the increased difficulty of this fixture will add credence to the fatalistic view some hold.
Instead of one of the worst teams in the league playing the worst team in the league, it will now be the worst team in the league on form against a team in Champions League form.
Newcastle will obviously relish the situation, with safety secured, a summer of inevitable big spending to look forward to and their pantomime villain Jordan Pickford in goal for the Toffees.
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They've had a habit of making Everton look a little foolish in recent games, too. Last season they came to Goodison and ended their 12-game winless run with a comprehensive 2-0 victory. The season before, they salvaged a 2-2 draw despite being 2-0 down with 93 minutes on the clock.
And the campaign before that? The Magpies were 3-2 winners at St James' Park, coming back from 2-0 down to win on the back of a Pickford meltdown.
But a win for them on Thursday would be the worst of the lot for the Toffees given the Merseyside club's league plight.
Not that Everton have needed much help to make themselves look silly this term.
