If you win, you are Premier League champions in waiting. If you don't, you are a finished club with no hope of success.
Such is the life of a team contending at the very top of the league, a life which Aston Villa are having to get used to.
The truth, as is often the case, is somewhere in the middle following the draw at home to Sheffield United in their final match before Christmas.
A win would have put Villa top of the Premier League for the first time since August 2011 - and potentially for the first time on Christmas Day since 1998 if other results went their way too.