The days gets shorter, the clocks go back and membership to Tottenham's injury club goes through the roof.
There is something about this time of year for Spurs and it is hard not to feel a growing sense of deja vu.
The injury list is not as dramatic as the one Ange Postecoglou faced last season and that prompted a disastrous domestic collapse, but it is quietly growing and already having an impact.
Spurs were beaten 2-0 by Newcastle in the fourth round of the Carabao Cup on Wednesday. It is one down, three to go in terms of the club's hopes of winning silverware for a second successive season.
To be blunt, Spurs are not going to win the Premier League and Champions League success looks miles off. It is effectively FA Cup or bust.
When Thomas Frank arrived at the start of the summer, he used his first press conference to declare that his Spurs side needed to challenge on multiple fronts in a way they have not in recent seasons.
That Spurs could not do so in the Carabao Cup is not Frank's fault. He has been left with a worryingly thin squad and little chance of competing.
Spurs had Callum Olusesi, Luca Gunter and James Rowswell on their bench at St James' Park and yet this was as strong a squad as Frank could have named.
The starting line-up was not weak, either. Some might have wanted Micky van de Ven to start but Frank was right to rest him with his injury record. Mohammed Kudus, so crucial to Spurs' attack, also can't start every match.
Frank revealed after the match that Archie Gray would have started had he not been ruled out with a calf issue. That was picked up in Monaco, as was Wilson Odobert's side issue. Strangely both made the bench against Everton on Sunday before being ruled out here.
With it also emerging after the match that Guglielmo Vicario had missed out because he "had a small thing that had to be done", it meant that Frank was without 12 first-team players.
Newcastle, by contrast, were able to bring on the likes of Bruno Guimaraes, Joelinton and Anthony Gordon.
Spurs played decently in the circumstances, showing more promising signs in open play as Xavi Simons produced one of his best displays. There was disappointment to go out of the cup, but this was not a terrible performance.
The issue in the final third was of quality rather than tactics or set-up. Add the likes of Solanke, Dejan Kulusevski and James Maddison into the side and it would have been a very different match.
More worrying is that Frank's squad is becoming increasingly depleted just as the fixtures continue to come thick and fast.
Speaking at St James' Park after the match, Frank insisted he was not worried. The Spurs boss was keen to emphasise that the club had been unfortunate with injuries, rather than suffering muscle issues due to fatigue or poor management of minutes.
"We know injuries is part of it," Frank said.
"It's up to me to find solutions. I think some of the ones we had are relatively, how can I say, unlucky. It's how quick you get them back.
"But a contact injury to Maddison, Bissouma. A knee thing with Destiny [Udogie], we can't do too much about that. Dom mishit the ball."
Regardless of how they have been picked up, the injury list is a major problem. Frank is not one for detailed injury updates and that has added to the uncertainty.
Cristian Romero, for example, has been training on the grass individually and yet Frank has repeatedly said "no timeframe" for his return. Solanke is said only to be taking "positive steps".
It is difficult, then, to be sure just how bad Spurs' injury problems are. If Romero is not back to face Chelsea on Saturday evening then concerns really will grow.
There are now three home games before the international break, with Copenhagen and Manchester United following Chelsea's visit to north London.
Spurs have a woeful home record and must improve that, regardless of who they have available. The international break will then offer a chance to get players back fit and hopefully get a grip on the injury problems.
If that does not happen, Frank will have his hands tied behind his back trying to keep the season on track.
