Everything seemed so simple last season. With five games to go, the title was won and Manchester United's hegemony was becoming as tediously predictable as a James Bond movie on Easter Sunday. This time it could hardly be more different and the sense of claustrophobia at both ends of the Premiership will be exacerbated today by a fixture list where those who profit will need the nerves of a bomb-disposal expert.
While Arsenal attempt to scale the Premiership's summit by using up one of their games in hand over United and Liverpool against Charlton Athletic at the Valley, four of the other matches are direct confrontations between the sides trying desperately to clamber out of the relegation quagmire.
If the contest for the championship has been unusually close this season, it has become even more so at the other end, with 10 clubs still shy of the 40-point mark normally regarded as a guarantee to avoid joining Division One.
The situation is so congested that by teatime today, for example, Bolton Wanderers could have risen to the relatively dizzy heights of 11th position - something that a few weeks ago would have seemed as unthinkable as a World Cup winner of Youri Djorkaeff's ego joining the club.
Alternatively, Sam Allardyce's side could be back in the bottom four if they lose at Everton and results go against them.
The only certainty is that Leicester City will drop quietly through the trapdoor some time in the next few weeks although Dave Bassett's side could still play a significant role in the dogfight if they blow a hole in Sunderland's chances of survival at the Stadium of Light today.
That may have seemed almost unthinkable before Saturday but it is funny how a team can react once they have accepted relegation, and Leicester's 2-1 defeat of Blackburn Rovers will have increased the gathering apprehension on Wearside.
Blackburn are the archetypal too-good-to-go-down merchants who may do just that, and while Graeme Souness should not be too worried by the prospect of his former employers, Southampton, visiting Ewood Park tonight, his side's record against teams in the bottom half of the Premiership is poor, going on abject.
As Souness says: "We are where we are because we've not beaten Leicester over two games. We've not beaten Bolton and we lost to Derby twice. If you give yourself half of the points from those six games, then we would now be sitting in a very comfortable position."
John Gregory, Derby's manager, believes four wins from their remaining six games will be the only hope of squeezing out of the bottom three, so Middlesbrough's visit to Pride Park is not far off being a case of win-or-bust for the hosts.
Likewise for Ipswich at home to Chelsea, while Fulham will cross the capital to take on a West Ham side sitting pretty with 40 points.
At the other end of the table Leeds will attempt to resurrect their fading Champions League hopes at Spurs.
Manchester United, meanwhile, are on their way to Spain for tomorrow's Champions League quarter-final first-leg against Deportivo La Coruna.
Alex Ferguson can only hope that Charlton's unbeaten sequence of 12 London derbies does not falter now. But there remains the unpalatable prospect for United fans that the only silverware in Manchester this season may go to City, the First Division champions-elect who will go up if they win at Wolves and West Brom cannot do likewise at Coventry.
However, Wolves manager Dave Jones refuses to give up on the title despite City's five-point advantage at the top.
Wolves have faltered in recent weeks and City overhauled them at the summit - but Saturday's win at Burnley has hauled the midlands club back into championship contention. "What that win has done is put is in a position where automatic promotion is in our own hands," said Jones.
West Brom go into their clash with Coventry, who sit one place outside the play-offs, in confident mood on the back of four straight wins.
