Aberdeen may have suffered four defeats on the spin but manager Derek McInnes remains upbeat about the long-term progress made by his side.
The Dons will attempt to end their losing streak and return to the top of the Scottish Premiership with a victory over Motherwell, who visit Pittodrie tomorrow.
A League Cup exit to Hibernian before defeats by Caley Thistle, St Johnstone and Ross County have put a dampener on the club’s best start to a season.
But McInnes, who inherited a team that had finished in the bottom six in four consecutive seasons, is confident the current loss of form is a mere blip on the road to further success.
He said: “I think we have shown real improvement over the last two-and-a-half years.
“This club was used to losing games on a regular basis and that hasn’t been the case over the last two-and-a-half years.
“We have raised expectations and it is important we meet those expectations. But we don’t get anxious or panicky about that.
“The results will come if we stick together, continue to work hard and show confidence in ourselves.”
Former Aberdeen manager Mark McGhee, back at the helm of Motherwell for the second time, will be in the visiting dugout this weekend after a 1-0 defeat by Celtic in his opening game in charge.
Captain Ryan Jack will return after missing last week’s 2-0 loss at Dingwall. McInnes has a couple of squad injury concerns for tomorrow’s encounter but refused to name the players who are fitness doubts.
The Aberdeen manager added: “We have a couple of players causing a bit of concern. One or two are definitely not ruled in for the game.
“Mark Reynolds came through a reserve game and we are getting some football into Peter Pawlett, who never trained last week because of a slight groin strain.
“We have one knock from the game and another from training causing a bit of concern.
“Ryan Jack is all right. He managed to do a bit on Monday and trained the full session on Tuesday, so, hopefully, that’s the illness out his system.
“It was a blow last Friday to wake up to the news he was ruled out.
“We put Mark Reynolds and Willo Flood into the game because they are experienced, important players for us.
“But we needed a better performance all round from everyone in that first half.”