Even managers who appear to walk on water get soggy from time to time. This would seem to be one of those periods for Roberto de Zerbi.
It would be awfully premature to talk about difficulties at Brighton, especially in the immediate aftermath of a win over Ajax, but it is getting a little tricky and a bit sticky.
Indeed, with no Premier League wins in the past four games it is their longest such run since the opening five matches of De Zerbi's tenure.
Granted, a spell comprising Manchester City, Liverpool and Aston Villa was never going to be straightforward, but not many teams have been better than Brighton in the 14 months since De Zerbi's arrival, so it is a measure of progress that anything less than a sprint can feel like a crawl.