The leaves are only just starting to turn brown and yet Manchester City's week ahead looks like a defining one.
It's too early in the season to suggest a trio of away fixtures against Chelsea, Paris Saint-Germain and Liverpool are make-or-break for Pep Guardiola's team, but they will offer us more clues as to City's true state.
There's something absurd about even hinting a team that have already thrashed Norwich and Arsenal 5-0, won away at Leicester and stuffed six goals past RB Leipzig are in any kind of trouble.
Pep Guardiola was left frustrated as Manchester City were held goalless by Southampton
Raheem Sterling shows his frustration in a rare low-key afternoon for the reigning champions
But with Guardiola taking aim at City's fans and then his own players, plus injuries mounting up, there's undoubtedly a bit of tension in the air.
If City emerge from this fiendishly tricky eight day spell with two or even three victories, then all early season concerns will be blown away.
They will be well on their way to the knockout stages of the Champions League as they bid to go one better than last season and they'll have made a resounding statement to those pretenders to their Premier League crown.
But drop too many points and there will be hard graft ahead in Europe and ground to make up at home, where Chelsea, Liverpool and Manchester United all look like genuine challengers again.
Having opened the season with defeat at Tottenham, City dropped points for the second time in Saturday's goalless draw with Southampton at the Etihad.
Jack Grealish reacts at the end of Saturday's goalless draw but the real test is just beginning
Phil Foden rues the late Raheem Sterling goal against the Saints ruled out for offside by VAR
Astonishingly, City mustered just one shot on target and that didn't arrive until the 90th minute. Raheem Sterling saw a late 'winner' ruled offside following a lengthy VAR review to leave Guardiola looking heavenwards in exasperation.
The truth was they looked off-colour, were sloppy in possession and lacked their usual attacking spark, also getting away with a VAR penalty call when Kyle Walker bundled Adam Armstrong over in the box.
As Sterling, Jack Grealish and Gabriel Jesus struggled to click, it was very easy to categorise the game as one a world class striker like Harry Kane, Romelu Lukaku or Erling Haaland would have salvaged.
Jesus just hasn't matched the high standards expected of him when he signed in 2017 and with Sergio Aguero now gone and City's summer pursuit of Kane unsuccessful, they do look a finisher light.
It is a notion that sounds absurd in the context of 16 goals scored in the three home games prior to Southampton and another six hammered in against Wycombe in the Carabao Cup.
But Guardiola may well sense his team are lacking a born goalscorer to drag them through those days when all the intricate manoeuvres and pretty patterns don't bear fruit.
Despite the poor shooting stats, Guardiola oddly took aim afterwards at his defence and midfielder Fernandinho. 'The five guys who have to bring the ball to the other players were not good,' he moaned.
'Football depends a lot on how good we do the build-up and
