Take a look at the final Premiership table from last season and the current Premier League standings. Apart from the change in name, what are the key transformations? Undoubtedly the massive drop in the fortunes of Bolton and Reading, contrasting with the points boost achieved by Arsenal, Aston Villa and Manchester City.
The latter team have undergone by far the most dramatic upheaval, with City boasting 13 more points after 36 games than they amassed in 38 games last season, putting them on course for their highest-ever finish in the Premiership era.
So of course manager Sven-Goran Eriksson will lose his job.
If City's season had been reversed and they had climbed into this position after a late push, then Eriksson's future would look terribly bright and Thaksin Shinawatra would be applauding him on easily fulfilling the first part of the three-year plan that should be followed by UEFA Cup and then Champions League qualification.
But unfortunately, City started at a canter and were flirting with a Champions League place until January before going through a poor spell that reaped only one win (against ManYoo) in eight games.
To you, me and most right-thinking folk, this is the inevitable slump that happens when you bring in a whole raft of new players to play their first English season without a proper pre-season, what happens when you don't spend in January to supplement a small squad and what happens when you lose a mainstay of your defence.
To someone who knows nothing about football, it's what happens when you haven't got the right manager.
When Shinawatra watched City lose to Fulham on Saturday, do you think he realised that the full-backs were playing at centre-half, a winger was playing at right-back and no sort of footballer at all was playing at left-back? Is there any chance that he would recognise Micah Richards or Richard Dunne if he ran into them in the treatment room?
Yes, Eriksson spent £40m in the summer, but he was starting from a position of having three good players in Dunne, Richards and Didi Hamann after the exits of Joey Barton and Sylvain Distin. That £40m had to build a whole new team. Yes, he made mistakes - principally in the striking department - but he was not the first and will not be the last manager to buy players who have thrived in other leagues but struggle in England.
He did bring in Martin Petrov and Elano - two players who have brought City fans more pleasure than any other player since Georgi Kinkladze. Finally, City had flair players and the club had no need to pipe in manufactured crowd noise to cover up the sound of snoring.
The season did lose its sheen but for City to finish fourth or even fifth this season after a spend of just £40m would have been a miracle. All Sven has provided is a minor miracle with a double derby win over ManYoo. Since when were minor miracles not enough in football?
Sarah Winterburn