Last season it was the Champions League that saved Roma's bacon. The Giallorossi s arrival in the semi-finals of the competition for the first time in over three decades shocked Europe and galvanised the Italian capital, with fans dancing long into the night and even chairman James Pallotta taking a daring and costly dip in one of Rome's most famous fountains after his team's historic comeback against Barcelona.
Roma's efforts in Europe were so convincing that ahead of the first leg of the semis at Anfield, one Lazio fan confided in this writer that he was considering relocating to Papua New Guinea should by some miracle Roma make it to the final.
That run was the highlight of Pallotta's reign in Rome and contained some the club's best displays not just of that season, but of any campaign in the past decade. Chelsea and hated Juventino Antonio Conte were swatted at the Stadio Olimpico as Roma topped their group and knocked out Atletico Madrid, favourites to qualify alongside the then-Premier League champions.
In the league, the pickings were rather slimmer. Beyond the November derby win over Lazio there was nothing to compare with their escapades on the continent. In fact, just days before beating Barca 3-0 to come back from a 4-1 first-leg deficit, Roma were booed off by the fans who watched their team slump to defeat at home to Fiorentina.
That 2-0 bashing at the hands of the Viola was the sixth, and mercifully last, home defeat of a pretty miserable domestic season, forgotten amid the outpouring of emotion for an incredible effort against Europe's best. Roma take on European champions Real Madrid on Wednesday, and if fan ire is a sign of Champions League success, then the omens are good for the Santiago Bernabeu.
Only the outstretched fingertips of Robin Olsen saved Roma from a humiliating defeat against lowly Chievo on Sunday afternoon, the Swede tipping Emanuele Giaccherini's dipping stoppage-time effort onto the bar seconds before the final whistle amid a wave of whistling that engulfed the Stadio Olimpico. Not long after, chants from the hardcore fans in the Curva Sud directed anger at Pallotta, guilty in the eyes of many of presiding over the dismantling of a team that got them taken seriously in Europe and of failing to build on the promise shown in previous campaigns.
It doesn't help when none other than Francesco Totti says that dominant Juventus are "out of reach" and that everyone else is aiming for "somewhere between second and fourth" before the season has even started. "The season is long but we need to be realistic, it's pointless that we pretend that Juve aren't in a different league" said the Roma legend. "It's been a long time since we last won anything but that's happened to the others as well. The only team that wins anything is Juventus."
As crushingly realistic as Totti's comments were, results so far would appear to bolster angry supporters' case that the team is treading water at best. Roma are on just five points, tied for their worst total after four games of the American era. But what has been worse isn't so much the results, as bad as they have been, but the manner in which they have been obtained.
Roma had to battle back from a 3-1 half-time deficit to draw with Atalanta's reserves in their first home match, and threw another first half in the bin at AC Milan, where they were deservedly punished in the final seconds for an insipid display that saw them have just two shots on target. Sunday was supposed to be an opportunity to bounce back after the international break, a sort of new start to the season after the paucity of the first three matches. Instead they found themselves looking at age old problems and a team that seems to have taken a step backwards since capturing the Eternal City's hearts with their performance in Europe last season. Two goals up after half an hour on a team with negative points, they then proceeded to chuck the match away, visibly tiring as Chievo battled back for a creditable and deserved point.
Coach Eusebio Di Francesco has struggled to get the best out of his attackers since he arrived last summer, but more worrying is how his defence has crumbled. Roma have conceded seven goals already this season, a quarter of the goals they let in the whole of last season and a higher number than even kamikaze attack-minded coach Zdenek Zeman managed in the first four matches of his ill-fated return to the Italian capital in 2013.
Meanwhile Madrid have smashed in 11 as they start life after Cristiano Ronaldo unbeaten and in rude attacking health. Gareth Bale and Karim Benzema look reborn, while the thought of Luka Modric, Caesemiro and Isco (or Marco Asensio) coming up against Steven N'Zonzi and Daniele De Rossi is enough for pre-match nightmares after what the humbler Giaccherini and Valter Birsa inflicted on Roma's midfield at the weekend.
Apart from the barracking from the stands on Sunday, dwindling faith in the side can be seen in the number of fans travelling to Spain, with little more than a thousand fans on their way to Madrid. It's up to Roma to show that they can still make fans dream, and after bashing Barca last year, what better place than the Bernabeu to get the blood pumping this campaign?