The League Cup group stage is one of those things where far more can go wrong than can go right.
With just group winners guaranteed qualification, it only takes the smallest of missteps for Premiership sides to get themselves in trouble.
The vast majority of them have already found that out – with the final matches coming this weekend, Ross County are the only top-flight side other than Aberdeen currently favourites to top their section, and even that after a fright in Buckie.
So the Dons, in an unfamiliar situation, deserve praise for the professional and unflustered manner in which they have strolled through theirs.
They certainly had the luck of the draw on their side – to get through the first three matches without playing anyone who finished higher than seventh in last season’s third tier is arithmetically the kindest set of opening fixtures it is possible to get – but a team can only beat what is put in front of it and Aberdeen have done so without any of the hitches to befall all their Premiership rivals.
With nine points and a giant goal difference on the board, the Dons’ sights must now shift to trying to secure one of the three available seeded spots in the last 16.
Arbroath, Dundee and Inverness will also try to complete 100% campaigns at home against lower-ranked opponents, so it would be prudent for Aberdeen to assume that a full three points will be required against Raith and to keep the accelerator pressed to the floor.
This hugely redesigned team may fancy itself against even the best in the land, but there is no harm in delaying the point at which they have to run into one of them.