Gonzalo Higuain's January arrival at Chelsea has cast him in an unenviable role as the club's mid-season saviour but that was always likely to prove too heavy a burden for one man to bear.
Exactly a year on from a 3-0 loss at home to Bournemouth, they suffered an even more humiliating defeat at the Vitality Stadium, beaten 4-0 on a trying night for both Higuain and his manager, Maurizio Sarri.
The Argentine had 29 touches, no shots and no key passes on his Premier League debut. Unsurprisingly, the home fans revelled in Higuain's misery, dismissing him as "just a sh*t Callum Wilson", the Bournemouth striker previously targeted by Chelsea.
It wasn't just Higuain who suffered, though.
Josh King and David Brooks tore Chelsea apart time and again, combining for the first two goals and ultimately scoring three between them before Charlie Daniels added a fourth late on.
The embarrassing nature of the defeat places Sarri and his side under further scrutiny, with Chelsea now fifth in the table, behind Arsenal on goals scored.
The most obvious concern is that the players are not showing any signs of better adapting to Sarri's system the longer the season goes on.
'Sarriball' is proving increasingly predictable, even with Higuain leading the line.
Indeed, Bournemouth simply followed the blueprint previously laid out by a host of teams outside the top six who have successfully ceded possession to Chelsea in non-threatening areas before hitting them on the break.
Everton, Manchester United, Southampton, Leicester and Crystal Palace all played this way against Chelsea, who proved unable to bypass deep-lying defences.
Furthermore, in most cases, Jorginho was man-marked out of the game. It was an all-too-familiar story here: new striker; same old 'Sarriball'.
Getty Images
N'Golo Kante again looked uncomfortable in the final third, fluffing a massive chance, while nobody was in the least bit surprised when Mateo Kovacic saw his close-range header pushed on to the bar.
The Croatia midfielder hasn't scored for 93 matches for club and country yet he has been charged with becoming Chelsea's answer to Napoli captain Marek Hamsik at Stamford Bridge. It is not going well.
Chelsea put Eden Hazard and Pedro alongside Higuain but all three proved incapable of providing any magic up front, with the Spain international particularly disappointing.
Willian, Olivier Giroud and Ruben Loftus-Cheek came on but changed nothing, as Chelsea kept Sarri's preferred 4-3-3 shape throughout.
At the back, David Luiz made a terrible mistake for the second goal, only heightening the sense of déjà vu among the travelling support.
Perhaps worst of all, Bayern Munich target Callum Hudson-Odoi travelled to the south coast but wasn't included in the matchday squad, just a day after Chelsea rejected his transfer request in the hope of sending out a stern 'hands-off' warning to the Bavarians.
Instead, the teenage talent would be forgiven for wanting to leave more than ever before.
Make no mistake about it, this was a chastening defeat for Chelsea and their boss. It was only the second time in the club's history that the Blues had lost a Premier League game by a four-goal margin.
Sarri can, therefore, no longer point to the absence of a prolific striker for the failings of Sarriball. They have one now in Higuain, who knows 'Sarriball' better than most after his record-breaking heroics at Napoli in 2015-16.
This defeat can't be attributed to his players' attitude either. Higuain may ultimately prove the answer to Chelsea's problems up front but there are question marks hanging over every area of this team.
And perhaps the biggest one of all hangs over 'Sarriball' itself.
The manager needs to find answers, and fast.
.jpg?auto=webp&format=pjpg&width=640&quality=60)
.jpg?auto=webp&format=pjpg&width=640&quality=60)