Given Liverpool have tried to turn more corners than Lewis Hamilton this season, trepidation for Saturday's visit from Nottingham Forest would be understandable.
Having secured a significant boost to morale with the 6-1 shelling of Leeds United on Monday, the Reds should, in theory, approach this weekend's game in a buoyant mood, full of confidence from their latest free-scoring triumph.
But Liverpool have been burned before of course this season. It was a little over a month ago that the historic hammering of Manchester United - 7-0, for those who'd forgotten - was followed up, just six days later, by a dismal defeat at Bournemouth, who were rock bottom at the time.
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Back-to-back 2-0 victories over Everton and Newcastle United in February were met by a 5-2 humbling at home to Real Madrid in the Champions League, while a three-game winning run that saw them beat Rangers 7-1 in Glasgow before they knocked off Manchester City and West Ham at Anfield was followed up by a 1-0 loss at Forest.
So despite what should be the obvious belief gained from the emphatic win over Leeds, supporters will be forgiven for feeling that they have been here before as they look ahead to a first visit from Forest since 1998, when Michael Owen scored four in a 5-1 triumph. How Jurgen Klopp would love something similar this weekend from one of his several sharpshooters as he looks to close in on his 100th Anfield victory.
Top-four hopes, remarkably, remain flickering, even if it is only the eternal optimists who believe Liverpool are in a position to secure Champions League football next season. Had any sort of consistent run been put together since that victory over United in early March, Klopp might be approaching the final eight games of a taxing and testing term merely needing his players to hold their nerve.
Instead, what he needs is surely the sort of eight-game run of excellence that has been sorely beyond them since they finished last season. With 24 points left available, Newcastle find themselves nine clear of Liverpool with Brighton, Aston Villa and Tottenham between the pair. But was Monday night the game that finally turned that widest of corners?
That remains to be seen, but if the situation affords them little else it is that they can largely play with freedom in the final five weeks of the season and see where they land. For a club like Liverpool, such an opportunity to let the shackles off is a rarity given the often suffocating demands to win every week.
"I want to really use this training time we have to create something which we can build on and use," said Klopp on Friday, before adding: "The future has started already."
That, then, could see the Reds playing in the sort of relaxed environment that hasn't been available due to the level of performance and the increasing severity of their plight. It's a prospect that raises the potential for more free-wheeling displays like Elland Road, Bournemouth at home in August or the second halves against United and at Rangers. After all, if a 6-1 win is only your fourth highest win of the campaign, there is plenty of evidence you can still devastate the opposition when really on song.
But as the club approach their biggest summer transfer window of the Klopp era, there will also be plenty who will be playing for a spot in the squad of what is expected to be a new-look Liverpool next term.
Klopp has slowly started to discuss the topic of recruitment in more detail in recent weeks, perhaps as the realisation that a sizable rebuild is needed has washed over him and his coaching staff. The Liverpool boss is known to bristle at the subject of transfers but an acceptance that a major window is nearing has been increasingly apparent during his Friday dealings with the media.
Coaching over transfers has always been the steadfast philosophy of the Liverpool boss and it is a stance that is admirable as the football world continues to be consumed more and more through the sole prism of player trading and speculation but it cannot be denied that new additions are needed at Anfield. Whether he likes or not, Klopp has been forced to view the landscape differently.
The decision to walk away from the long-standing interest in Jude Bellingham was also taken with the need to bring in several others firmly in mind, meaning it could be an interesting few months ahead.
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