Cardiff City's 2-1 defeat to Chelsea on Sunday was a real kick in the teeth for Neil Warnock.
Not only was the manner of the result gut-wrenching, but the fact that the Bluebirds emerged with nothing to show for their gallant efforts will have hurt even more.
Next up is Man City at the Etihad for Warnock's men, a daunting task in the extreme.
But the Bluebirds pushed Chelsea all the way at the weekend and that spirit will once again be needed in bucketloads on Wednesday evening.
Cardiff's closest rivals, Burnley, are five points clear at present, but have played a game more.
It’s at this time of year when the predicted tables become more prevalent and in some cases, controversial depending on your allegiance of course.
The latest one from Football Web Pages has crunched the numbers at both the top and bottom and decided that Man City will win the title by one point above Liverpool by claiming 98 points. Both sides are predicted to win all of their remaining games.
But the top-four race is where it gets very interesting. Arsenal may be third in the table right now but the Gunners are being backed to miss out on the top four by one point.
Tottenham Hotspur are down to finish third on 77 points, Man Utd to scrape into the top four on 75, while Arsenal and Chelsea end fifth and sixth with points totals of 74 and 73 respectively.
Flipping the attention to the relegation race and Cardiff (28) are predicted to be nine points adrift when it’s all said and done with Burnley (37) their nearest rivals outside of the bottom three.
Fulham (24) will be relegated but still pick up another seven points but it’s terrible news for Huddersfield (14), who are not expected to earn any more points.
