Last weekend, beleaguered Roma succumbed to their sixth defeat - the fourth in a row - from their opening nine Serie A matches this season. No-one really expected them to beat the in-form Juventus in Turin, but Luciano Spalletti's team again lacked consistency and motivation.
Apart from a few sporadic occasions, Roma, runners-up in the Serie A these past two years, rarely threatened to pierce Juve's solid defence.
Roma started the season ranked among the front-runners, but this is their worst start in many a year.
Against Juve, Roma were only in the game for the opening 20 minutes. Up to that stage, the Giallorossi looked confident and could have scored had they taken the few chances that came their way.
But then coach Claudio Ranieri changed tactics and Juve started coming more and more into the picture. When captain Alessandro Del Piero found the back of the net from a superbly-taken free-kick on 33 minutes, Roma threw in the towel... they were down and out.
Now, their ambitions in the Serie A look to be already over so early in the campaign. Perhaps, their only hope is in the Champions League but they have to act fast and regain their winning touch.
In the Serie A, Roma only have seven points to show from nine games. They won two matches (vs Reggina 3-0 and Atalanta 2-0) and a 1-1 home draw with Napoli on the opening day.
Roma have already conceded 17 goals. In their last four league outings, the Coppa Italia holders have shipped 10 goals and scored only once (a Francesco Totti penalty goal against Udinese).
Such poor statistics are nowhere near Roma's huge achievements in the past two years.
In 2006/07 and 2007/08, Roma went on to lift the Italian Cup, besides finishing second in the standings behind Inter in the Serie A and making it to the last eight of the Champions League. So, what is going wrong at the Olympic Stadium?
There is no single reason for Roma's debacle but their shortcomings could easily be summarised in four points.
i) the few new signings of note have, so far, turned up to be mere flops;
ii) the physical state of the players is very poor;
iii) Francesco Totti never really got back to his best since his injury in February; and
iv) Spalletti is failing to get the best out of his players like he used to do before.
Roma players have run out of confidence. Morale is very low at the moment. This team needs to start winning again to boost up their spirit and, more importantly, to start climbing the ladder.
A team that boasts players of the calibre of Totti, Daniele De Rossi, Christian Panucci, Alberto Aquilani and Mirko Vucinic can aspire for much more.
It is a matter of self-belief and in this respect, Spalletti has to help his players rediscover their true form.
Roma have enough quality within their ranks to get out of this precarious situation. But they have to do it fast because otherwise, they risk getting entangled in a dogfight against relegation like the one they were involved in a few years back in season 2004/05.
A few weeks ago, Juventus were also going through a dark patch. However, with the all-round collaboration of all players and coach, the 'Old Lady' emerged from the tunnel with flying colours.
The same had happened to Milan in September. Slowly but surely, Carlo Ancelotti and his players overcame a very disappointing start to the season and now they are top of the standings.
Roma can do likewise but how difficult it will be for them to follow in the footsteps of Juventus and Milan? Only time will tell.
Serie A statistics
1st defeat for Fiorentina after a five-match positive run (four wins and a draw) as they were beaten by Siena for the second year running in a highly-contested Tuscany derby. Like Udinese, Inter, Napoli, Genoa, Fiorentina, Lecce and Sampdoria, Siena are still unbeaten at home. In the game of the weekend, Milan left it late to overcome 10-man Napoli at the Giuseppe Meazza stadium. Napoli were solid all the way even when down to 10 men on the stroke of half-time. Eventually, a late Ronaldinho goal (off a German Denis deflection) sealed Milan's fifth straight home win which catapulted them to the summit of the table.
2 consecutive defeats (vs Udinese 0-2 and Lazio 0-1) and a draw at Siena halted Catania's progress. On Sunday, they were undone by a Pasquale Foggia goal five minutes from time. This was Lazio's second successive win following the midweek 2-1 victory over Chievo. In a thrilling encounter, Genoa continued to show signs of progress thanks to a flawless display in Udine. Genoa are undefeated in their last five outings (three wins and two draws) whereas Udinese have stretched their positive run to eight games (five wins and three draws).
3rd league win on the trot (vs Torino 1-0, Bologna 2-1 and Roma 2-0) for back-to-form Juventus as they scored a goal in each half to pile more misery on Roma who have now lost all their first five away fixtures. Overall, Roma have already suffered six defeats - something which had not occurred since the early 1950s. Inter threw away a cushion 2-0 lead but eventually scored the winner in stoppage time to beat bottom side Reggina for the second year running. Inter's first win after two straight 0-0 draws coincided with Reggina's second successive defeat.
4 penalties were taken last weekend. Fabrizio Miccoli made no mistake from the spot for Palermo and Gaetano D'Agostino gave Udinese a headstart against Genoa from a fourth-minute penalty. Later on in the same game, Diego Milito equalised for the visitors by scoring from another penalty. Elsewhere, Riccardo Kaka saw his penalty stopped by Napoli veteran Gennaro Iezzo. This was the first penalty miss of this season. Three players, Jaime Valdes (Atalanta), Mark Bresciano (Palermo) and Christian Maggio (Napoli), received their marching orders.
5th defeat for Torino in their last six outings as the Maroons were agonisingly beaten by Sampdoria away. Sampdoria left it late to record their second straight home win (following the 2-0 success over Bologna). Bologna suffered a third consecutive defeat (vs Samp 0-2, Juventus 1-2 and Cagliari 1-5). On Monday, the sacking of coach Daniele Arrigoni came as no surprise.
24 goals were scored on the 10th day: 18 coming from the hosts and the remaining six from the visitors. Foreigners contributed with 10 goals. Neither hat-tricks nor own goals were recorded. Robert Acquafresca and Jeda (both Cagliari) grabbed a brace each. Apart from Jeda, there were three other players, namely, Giuseppe Sculli (Genoa), Fabio Quagliarella (Udinese) and Pasquale Foggia (Lazio), who came on as substitutes and scored. Fiorentina striker Alberto Gilardino still leads the scorers' list with seven goals.