Chelsea's season can now be seen through the landscape of two cold trips to the south coast. One at the start of December and the next in the first week of February.

From second and vague, vague dreams of a title charge to being three points above seventh. If they were a false second over the winter then the reality of a very real Champions League qualification scrap is biting.

Enzo Maresca and his players may well be fourth and still only four from third place Nottingham Forest but the atmosphere reflects a different story. Out of both cups and on the slide, Chelsea could be 16 points behind Liverpool at the summit by Wednesday evening. After beating Southampton 5-1 in perhaps the peak of Maresca's tenure to date, the gap was seven.

More importantly, having been afforded the luxury of looking up rather than nervously down, something earned during a strong two-and-a-half month run of 16 wins from 21 in all competitions, Chelsea are in a dogfight. Their advantage has been eroded and it is now more due to their rivals being inconsistent than their own brilliance that the surface picture still looks okay.

The Premier League form, in particular, is stark. Eight unbeaten with six wins prior to drawing at Everton and only two wins in the eight since. Those have come in the past fortnight against sides in the bottom five who have changed manager recently, and neither was entirely convincing.

For Maresca, the rousing rendition of hearing his name chanted back at him at St Mary's Stadium is a long way removed. He celebrated with true emotion after the following weekend's comeback victory over Tottenham.

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At that stage he was starting to look like the best decision made by the club since the ownership group takeover in May 2022. A bright young manager brought in to add tactical fluidity and modernity to a team starting to grow and gel but without a personality or identity.

He built a bond with supporters that Graham Potter and Mauricio Pochettino, for various reasons, did not. He had their backing.

That hasn't totally changed but the toxicity of Potter-Pochettino Chelsea has started to return. Maresca overcame initial worries around the style of his football and the wider worries regarding appointing an unproven Championship-winning manager. There were murmurs of discontent in his first official match, the opening day defeat to Manchester City. None of that grew beyond a few slight noises.

Owing largely to a strong response to that loss, Chelsea hit the ground running and started to score bags full of goals. Conference League performances helped with that as a light-hearted way through the low-key midweeks.

They bolstered Maresca's numbers and brought good feeling to Stamford Bridge. Perhaps there is no surprise that since the group phase ended Chelsea have found life tougher. Balancing the squad's minutes has become problematic and that was born out in the January transfer window.

Now the unrest of pre-Maresca Chelsea is back. There is frustration at the passive on-ball movement and tempo from both the home and travelling fans. Individual players are being booed, and Maresca's credentials to get out of this slide intact are being openly doubted.

There is a wider point that so, too, are those above him. Unlike with Potter and Pochettino, who were seen so brazenly as the problem holding Chelsea back, Maresca's early and positive impact has seen him put credit in the bank. That is now counting with more and more online turning their attention towards the structure and hierarchy of the club rather than the coach.

The issue Maresca still faces is that he is the public face of it. Just as Frank Lampard in late 2020 and then early 2021 was left isolated during a poor run, Maresca is the easiest one to criticise.

Lampard, and then Thomas Tuchel after him, was loved by fans. Maresca does not have the benefit of being a club legend but when Chelsea supporters get behind someone they tend to stay loyal. The challenge now is for Maresca to generate that goodwill again.

If he doesn't then his future will remain in question and his position under fire. Not only from the media and footballing world but also those at Chelsea who have put their neck on the line to name him as their guy. Their position in charge right now will also be dependent on the success of Maresca, if not in a literal sense than certainly through their popularity with fans.

This is not to suggest that Maresca is under immediate threat but failing to finish in the top four after the summer spending and strong start would undoubtedly be a failure from all parties.

Tuchel and Lampard were picked by the Roman Abramovich administration, although the former was sacked by Clearlake Capital-Todd Boehly. The Champions League win, Lampard's impressive and emotive first season as manager, and a general taking to them both made the reaction to their individual slumps all the more deep.

"The circus continues" read a banner put up outside Stamford Bridge when Lampard was dismissed during the Covid-19 lockdown and it didn't take long for Tuchel's own exit to really grate on fans who saw their side go from being reigning European and world champions to Premier League outcasts and the laughing stock of the game.

What both figures had was immense respect from Chelsea supporters. Maresca has a long and extremely unlikely way to go to come close to them both but will need fans on board if he is to survive the current run and unrest.