The highs of the Club World Cup are a distant memory for Chelsea, and the mood seems to have changed around manager Enzo Maresca.
The Italian saw his team leave the field to a smattering of boos on Saturday after a red card in a second successive match allowed Brighton to come from behind to win 3-1 at Stamford Bridge.
Maresca appeared at his strongest after Chelsea won the Conference League, qualified for the Champions League and lifted the Club World Cup.
But cracks have begun to appear, and he has made comments in recent weeks that will not have gone down well with his bosses.
Five of them - co-sporting directors Paul Winstanley and Laurence Stewart, recruitments chiefs Sam Jewell and Joe Shields, and co-owner Behdad Eghbali - went into the dressing room after the defeat by Brighton.
Maresca, though, was quick to insist that was normal.
"They have been inside the changing room like always," he said.
"We have an office inside the changing room where after every game we sit and talk about the game. It was nothing different."
Defeat for the Blues as goals from substitutes Danny Welbeck and Maxim de Cuyper during 11 minutes of stoppage time made the hosts pay for Trevoh Chalobah's 53rd-minute red card.
BBC Sport understands Chelsea set Maresca the target of qualifying for the Champions League this season with the intention of reviewing that at the end of the campaign.
But with just eight points from six games and two Premier League losses in a row, Maresca will surely know the pressure is growing.
BBC Match of the Day pundit Alan Shearer said: "I think as a Chelsea manager, once you accept that position, you know that you are under pressure if you lose matches - and they've lost two.
"That's the rule of management, I guess, but more so when you are at Chelsea. You can't lose games and they've now lost two so I think you understand the situation."