Before a ball was even kicked in this 2014-15 campaign, there was an unparalleled level of confidence amongst Evertonians that, after a brilliant first season under Roberto Martinez, the Spaniard would guide the Blues to the Champions League in his second term.
But an overly disappointing start to the season has rather left many Toffees fans with their bubbles well and truly burst; Everton have managed to take just 5 points from a fairly kind opening 5 fixtures. Most recently, the Blues succumbed to a galling 3-0 Capital One Cup defeat away at Swansea in what can only be described as another abject display.
Our hopes and dreams for the season may yet still be realized; it is far too early to write Everton's chances off, especially given the similarly fluctuating form of our top 4 rivals.
But, thus far, there has been very little from Everton to suggest they bear the hallmarks of a top 4 side. Barring an impressive performance against Wolfsburg in a 4-1 demolition, and a comfortable 2-0 win at West Brom, the Toffees have toiled and frustrated far too often so far this year. This, sadly though unsurprisingly, has caused some fans to turn on Martinez, a man who only a few months ago was untouchable amongst most Evertonians.
And though to the public, it seems Martinez's positivity fails to waver, privately he will surely have a number of great concerns at this moment.
The first, and most obvious problem, is our shambolic defence. Phil Jagielka and Sylvain Distin, only recently an impenetrable force, have come in for the most criticism, with some of the opinion that 36-year-old Distin's playing days are over and that Jagielka has become something of a liability.
Some point to Martinez's inactivity in the transfer market for a defender. While he did brilliantly to help secure Romelu Lukaku permanently, it is becoming more evident by every startling mistake our ageing defence makes that at least one other defender was needed this summer.
Almost our entire campaign so far has been littered with individual mistakes; the error-strewn performance against Chelsea, for example, finished in a scoreline which speaks for itself. The emergence of John Stones is perhaps the only crumb of comfort Everton can take from their current centre-half dilemma, but the 20-year-old needs a partner, and neither seem worthy of selection at this moment.
Yet, you look the way Everton play against Wolfsburg, albeit winning by an arguably generous margin, and wonder why we seem incapable of replicating that level of performance domestically. Tim Howard especially was outstanding in that game, making a commendable 12 saves. And yet, in 6 domestic appearances, the veteran goalkeeper has let in 16 goals, and could easily have been sent off in 2 of those games. To go from being world-class to unreliably in the space of a few games is startling and unusual to say the least for a keeper of his calibre.
Martinez's tactics have also been scrutinized in most of our games so far. To play such a strong side against Wolfsburg shows just how much the competition means to him which is admirable, but to field a comparatively far weaker side at home to Crystal Palace 3 days later was disappointing to see and proved costly.
He has riled some fans with his persistence to play the likes of Jagielka, while Tony Hibbert, the recipient of a 2-year contract this summer, and Leon Osman, quite incredibly, seem to still have roles to play. Both are admirable, loyal servants to the club and I hold them both in extremely high regard, but as players, their performances have shown that, nowadays, they offer Everton very little.
Everton now travel to Anfield and Old Trafford in consecutive weekends, with an unenviable trip to Krasnodar sandwiched in-between. By the time our next home game against Aston Villa rolls around on October 18th, there is a very distinct possibility that Everton could have won only 3 of their last 12 Premier League matches.
Don't get me wrong, despite the negative tone of this piece, I personally have a lot of admiration for Martinez and still have great faith in him to make this season a great success. Once our lengthy injury list clears, we have a sizeable squad with healthy competition for places that should manage the 'Thursday-Sunday' routine with minimal fuss. The return of Ross Barkley, for example, can hardly come soon enough for the Blues at the moment.
However, what lies in front of Martinez now is undoubtedly his biggest headache as Everton manager so far. It is up to him to guide us through this testing spell and start to deliver the kind of season we expected.
It starts with one of the biggest games, if the biggest game of the season, across the park from Goodison this Saturday lunchtime. It could prove to be even more derby misery for Everton, or it could be the signal that our campaign has really got going.