Will Aberdeen be relegated for first time ever?
· Yahoo Sports
"We're in a relegation fight. If that wasn't clear before, it certainly is after tonight. I've reiterated to the players that there's no hiding place now."
Visit esporist.com for more information.
Two games into his Aberdeen tenure, manager Stephen Robinson laid it all on the line.
The former Northern Ireland international may merely have voiced what many were thinking, but by talking about relegation after a 4-1 defeat by Rangers he knew he was laying down a marker to his squad.
Do they have what it takes to fight their way to safety? Robinson says he is "confident" they do. We are about to find out.
On Saturday, Robinson takes Aberdeen to Paisley to play the club, St Mirren, he left just three weeks ago, having delivered a League Cup trophy in December to go with three consecutive top-six finishes.
St Mirren and Kilmarnock are just three points behind Aberdeen in the race to avoid the relegation play-off spot in the Scottish Premiership, with Livingston 12 points adrift at the bottom and seemingly doomed with seven games to go.
It feels like a game Aberdeen simply cannot lose, and Robinson recognised it is "huge".
In the club's 123-year history they have never played outside of Scotland's top flight. Unless Robinson and his players reverse their horrible form, that could be about to change.
Why Aberdeen are in big trouble
When Jimmy Thelin was sacked at the start of January, Aberdeen were only two points from the top six and 12 from the relegation play-off spot.
It had been a poor campaign to that point, but those in charge could not have envisaged it was going to get worse when Thelin went back to Sweden.
A run of one win in 11 games since by Aberdeen has enabled Kilmarnock to claw back 10 points on them and turn up the pressure.
The two-month delay in appointing a permanent manager proved extremely costly, as interim boss Peter Leven managed a solitary home league win against Livingston during his spell.
Between Thelin, Leven and the first two games of Robinson's spell, Aberdeen have won once in 15 league games and have picked up fewer points than any other side in the past eight rounds of Premiership matches.
Only Livingston have taken fewer points than Aberdeen at home this season and their away form has been bleak for more than a year.
The Dons have lost 10 of their past 11 on the road, the exception being a goalless draw at Dundee United.
While they have been far from perfect at the back - their defensive record is the best in the bottom six - scoring has been a chronic issue.
Only St Mirren have scored fewer goals and Aberdeen have netted just eight times away from Pittodrie all season. The consolation goal at Ibrox last time out was their first on the road in 2026.
[BBC Sport]These are truly bleak statistics for a club that has the ambition - and spending power - to be in the top four in the league and are symptoms of a chaotic campaign.
There have been three different managers, all using different systems and tactics.
The calm and reserved Thelin favoured 4-2-3-1, but that was changed for a more pragmatic 3-4-2-1, which initially yielded results, before he switched back before his dismissal.
Leven favoured four at the back and tried to be more expansive, before changing things himself when results did not come. Now Robinson has started using his favoured back-three formation.
As well as three managers, Aberdeen players have had a variety of coaches and faces at their Cormack Park training base and in the Pittodrie dugout, all with their own personalities.
From Thelin's assistant Christer Persson to Tony Docherty and Ian Burchnall, to new assistant Brian Kerr and even sporting director Lutz Pfannenstiel.
On top of that, a total of 36 players have featured for Aberdeen in the Premiership this season, which could rise to 37 if new recruit Elvis Bwomono features against St Mirren.
Playing in the Conference League and defensive injuries have not helped.
But it is no wonder performances have been confused and disjointed for the majority of the campaign, which now threatens to end in ignominy.
"We find ourselves in this position and [people might] say we don't deserve to be there - but we do because the season doesn't lie on a whole," Robinson said.
"We now have to stick together and get ourselves out of this situation."
- Visit our Aberdeen page for all the latest news, analysis and fan views
- Get Aberdeen news notifications in the BBC Sport app
What does history tell us?
Every season since the Premiership play-offs were introduced in 2013-14, 38 points has been enough to avoid them. Aberdeen are eight points short of that with seven games left to play.
Getting to that mark is no guarantee of safety but, with the bottom sides facing each other in the final five games, it is a useful guide.
Given the similar size of the clubs, Hibernian's relegation via the play-offs in 2014 will probably be cited regularly as a comparison to Aberdeen this term.
That year, a Hibs side who started the season playing European qualifiers fell to 11th place after a 13-game winless run at the end of the campaign.
Terry Butcher was given the job after Pat Fenlon's dismissal in November after over-achieving at Inverness Caledonian Thistle for several seasons.
But the former England captain - after calling out his players - failed to turn things around and the club ended the season demoted.
Hibs' plight 12 years ago does bear some similarities with Aberdeen's situation and gives a stark reminder that no club is too big to go down.
But Hibs were actually in a better position than Aberdeen with seven games to go that season - they had 34 points and were seven clear of 11th spot, albeit having played a game more than St Mirren.
A lot had to go wrong for Hibs to end up 11th - and it did. Aberdeen have even less margin for error now.
Can Robinson turn it around?
Stephen Robinson returns to his old club St Mirren desperate for his first Aberdeen win [SNS]Aberdeen turned to Robinson after his work making Motherwell and St Mirren stronger.
In Paisley, he won just one of his first eight league games after taking over in late February 2022 but ended the season with two wins and two draws to steer them into ninth place.
Likewise at Motherwell he came in after the transfer window closed in late February 2017 after Mark McGhee's sacking, with the club sitting 11th.
Four wins in 12 games was enough to avoid the play-offs by three points. The Aberdeen boss has done it before but has less time and greater pressure to change things at Pittodrie.
But he also proved in those two jobs that after spells on the training ground with his squad, whether after pre-season or winter breaks, his teams often put runs together.
That's why this international break may have come at the right time for Aberdeen, with Robinson confident things have improved since his strong words after the Rangers defeat.
"[The players] have been excellent, the response has been very, very good," he said.
"When we tell home truths you don't just shout and rant and rave as people probably imagine.
"It is a case of sitting people down, showing them what they are not doing, showing them what they are doing well and emphasising the good and the bad.
"But there were a lot of things we felt that we could do a lot better against Rangers and you back that up with footage, you back that up on the training pitch, and we have done that over the last 10 days and they have responded really, really well."
How the Aberdeen players respond to Robinson's methods on the pitch at St Mirren will set the tone now.
Has he got the players to play his aggressive and intense style? Is this squad cohesive and mentally tough enough to prevail in a scrap? Has he been left enough time to turn things around?
The next seven games will answer those questions and decide whether Aberdeen will end the season with a play-off to save their unblemished top-flight record.