The first thing that should be acknowledged in the wake of Aberdeen's defeat to Dundee on Saturday is that Steven Pressley's hosts were excellent across the board, from back to front.
In fact, they were everything the Dons weren't.
Pressley has had to rebuild Dundee for a second successive summer and the early signs are he has done so successfully. They were streets ahead of the visitors, having performed admirably at Celtic Park five days before.
But the alarm bells were ringing among the huge Aberdeen support at Dens, who knew they had been fortunate to win on the opening weekend, with this 2-0 defeat being pretty flattering given Dundee's profligacy.
New left-back Nesta Guinness-Walker will have had nightmares about Joe Bevan since the game. He gave him a torrid time throughout, though he wasn't aided by the ineffective former Dee Tony Yogane ahead of him.
While slightly better in the second half after a couple of changes and despite hitting the woodwork twice, Stephen Robinson's men didn't look like a side that could repeat the spectacular Artful Dodger act they had produced seven days before against Hearts.
Aberdeen and Dundee go head-to-head again this weekend in the League Cup at Pittodrie and there is going to have to be an almighty sea change if Robinson is going to take this team through to the quarter-finals of a competition he won last season.
In his defence, this is a totally new team and at times his players played, particularly at the back, as if they'd just met, which, relatively speaking, they have.
There will have to be a grace period, however, that, with this following on from several failed eras, won't extend much into September.
But Saturday was a sobering performance. Dundee played them like a fiddle, with looming trips to Motherwell and Celtic, either side of a visit from Rangers, to come in the next few weeks.
Robinson has a substantial job on his hands on this showing.
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