West Ham United have the unenviable task of facing up to a week in which they will travel to Old Trafford twice to face Manchester United.
First up is the late afternoon Premier League fixture on Sunday before the team return again for the quarterfinal of the EFL Cup on Wednesday.
Following the abject capitulation to Tottenham Hotspur last weekend and the mounting pressure on Slaven Bilic, this will be a stern test for the confidence of the manager's beleaguered team.
Last weekend's 3-2 loss to Tottenham at White Hart Lane was the type of result that would have dented morale and confidence. With just minutes remaining, the Hammers were 2-1 up and looked good for three points. The decision to replace Dimitri Payet with Havard Nordtveit however, is one that may well come back to haunt Bilic.
Nordtveit is one of the many players bought in over the summer to supposedly strengthen the squad; the Norwegian hasn't looked at all comfortable though, with fans asking what exactly the coaching team saw in the former Borussia Monchengladbach defensive midfielder. On Saturday, Nordtveit gave away a clumsy penalty to gift all three points to Spurs and invoke the wrath of the travelling supporters.
Worse, it was immediately apparent that the removal of Payet freed up Spurs midfielders who had been shadowing the French International and Bilic's pleas that his substitutions had been within the normally accepted tactics of killing off a game fell on largely deaf ears.
It's bad enough that none of Bilic's summer buys have made an impact, but when the small influence they do make is negative, then things start to turn. Against this is the fact the manager allowed popular and dependable defender James Tomkins to leave for Crystal Palace for £10 million. As the Hammers struggle with a porous defence, there's little doubt that not one of Bilic's replacements has even half the influence of the locally-born Tomkins.
There's no doubt Tomkins wanted regular football and Bilic apparently couldn't offer that but, as a defender of some note himself, it seems bizarre that the manager couldn't have worked with the player to improve his chances of a regular starting spot. In that cruel way of football however, it seems almost certain that, had he remained, Tomkins may well have been an ever-present so far this campaign.
Unfortunately, Bilic's poor showing this summer is causing concern with the winter transfer window just over a month away. Mario Mandzukic is the latest player to be linked with the Hammers and joins the growing list already containing Daniel Sturridge and Troy Deeney. The worry is though is that a long list of players were also linked in the summer but none wanted to ply their trade with what is essentially still a mid-table outfit at best.
It's often been the case that the Hammers fall between stools in trying to recruit and at least Sturridge and Deeney represent players who, in the case of the former, may see the club as a chance to prove a point or, in Deeney, a step upwards. There's still a long way to go before either become a reasonable bet however.
Jose Mourinho may not have the problem of his counterpart in east London but the United boss will still not want to give anything away to the Hammers. Mourinho cannot afford to drop more points at home -- particularly to a side struggling just above the relegation zone -- but will also view the cup game as a way of getting to within one step of a Wembley final. So often, a cup victory can provide a way forward for a top manager struggling to stamp his mark on the team, and the Portuguese manager has good track record of such wins with his time at Chelsea.
Such are the pressures in English football; it's hard not to see either Mourinho or Bilic under increasing pressure in weeks' time. The Hammers' boss will surely view one win out of two a good return but it's more likely this will be another disappointing week for the London Stadium faithful.