Hearts were being touted as possible title challengers earlier this season.
A strong start had some tipping Craig Levein’s side to push Celtic all the way but it’s quickly gone wrong.
Six months on and the Jambos are at serious risk of dropping out of the top six.
Gary Holt’s Livingston lurk in seventh place with only six points separating the two sides.
Bitter rivals Hibs are only a point further behind.
The disappointing defeat by Dundee on Wednesday done the Gorgie side no favours but Levein needs to stop the rot.
Two wins from the last five league games simply isn’t good enough from the Jambos.
Levein has added new faces to his squad and will be hoping they can make a quick impact.
However after slating David Vanecek’s performance against Dundee it seems unlikely.
The Jambos face a tough run of games in the next few weeks and could find themselves really up against it.
The return of the likes of Stevie Naismith, Uche Ikpeazu and John Souttar should help.
But time is quickly going against them and a bottom six finish would be disastrous for Levein’s side.
After such a promising start, it would be simplistic to blame Hearts’ slump on one specific thing.
Levein has no choice now but to find answers to his side’s problems sooner rather than later.