Fortunately for Thomas Tuchel and his Three Lions squad, that was never an option during a match in which they were businesslike and professional.
Total domination from England
Knowing the three points would see them through to the tournament proper with two group games to spare, the visitors set about dominating their hosts from the first whistle.
England's players certainly gave their counterparts a lesson in keep-ball, with 67% possession across the entire first-half and 303 passes completed out of 333 attempted for a fine 91% pass completion statistic.
It would take until the 26th minute before Anthony Gordon opened the scoring, however, with one of 15 shots from the Three Lions in the opening 45 minutes (including six in the opening 15 minutes alone).
The 11th consecutive match in which they'd gone 1-0 up was a milestone for England, as it had only happened twice before: a 12 game run ending in 1894 and an 11 game run ending in June 1980.
Gordon had actually been the fullest participant in the game up until his goal too, making five crosses for his teammates which was more than any other player on the pitch at that point.
Kane's collector's item
The writing was certainly on the wall for Latvia after that, given that in World Cup Qualifiers, they'd failed to win a match after going behind since their victory over Gibraltar on 16th November 2021.
Their three yellow cards before the break also evidenced their frustration, which was only compounded when they allowed Harry Kane to fire home a second as the match approached half-time.
Kane's 75th goal for his country was a collector's item too as it was just the third of the 75 that was scored from outside the box. The other two came against Nigeria in June 2018 and Poland in September 2021.
England's record scorer then bagged another from the penalty spot in first-half injury time to shatter any illusions the hosts may have had regarding making a comeback.
Scoring more than one goal in a match for England for the 13th time was a new Three Lions record for the centre-forward as it meant he'd surpassed Nat Lofthouse's 12 - another impressive stat to add to Kane's growing collection.
Sensational passing stats from Elliot Anderson
Elliot Anderson was once again the fulcrum in midfield for Tuchel's side, and his incredible output of 150 touches on the night included 130 total passes of which 121 were accurate.
A 93% completion stat for that amount of passes beggars belief. Just like his previous showings in the middle of the park for his country, the Nottingham Forest man was a standout performer, and has arguably played himself into the central midfield position alongside Declan Rice.
What's more, he'd made 93 passes in Latvia's half, whilst the hosts - in total as a team - completed only 49 in England's half.
The pressure remained on the home side after the break with Maksims Tonisevs putting into his own net just before the hour mark to add to the Latvians' misery.
That was the cue for Tuchel to make a triple substitution which included West Ham's Jarrod Bowen coming on.
In his 30 minute cameo, the striker's six duels were a sure sign of how involved he became in play, and how quickly he settled in the match. Only Gordon (11), Djed Spence (eight) and Kane (seven) had more.
Eze rounds things off
With five minutes remaining, he had his first assist in this round of World Cup qualifiers as he set up Eberechi Eze to put the gloss on a fine win for the visitors. His second goal for his country, coincidentally, was against the same opponent as when scoring his first back in March.
As the final whistle went, the relief on the faces of the Latvian players was obvious because they had taken a real pummelling in just about every aspect.
For Tuchel and England, they march on with a record to be proud of.
What now for Tuchel?
Clean sheets in their last eight World Cup qualifying games - 837 minutes in total - is their longest run without conceding since 2010. Goals in their last 23 WCQ matches is also the most since 2010.
The German coach now has the option to experiment for two games to see which of those players that are currently on the periphery could make a late run and be on the plane as part of Tuchel's final 23 to travel to the USA next summer.
Alternatively, he could aim for a perfect qualifying campaign both in terms of wins and no goals conceded.
That would certainly sound a warning to those other teams readying themselves for what's expected to be another festival of football.
Catch up on the match with Flashscore.
