It may just be that Chelsea's 2-1 win over Dynamo Kiev has saved Jose Mourinho's job for now – not because of what happened on-pitch, but more to do with what happened off it.
After receiving a strong indication Mourinho's tenure was over after the 1-3 home defeat to Liverpool, with a stay of execution only there pending the breathing space of the international break, Wednesday night's show of support by fans is understood to have made a major impression on those who run the club.
A nervy Stamford Bridge gathered together in defiant displays of support several times in the Champions League match – displays which Mourinho later admitted had stirred up emotions in him even stronger than his jubilant return to the club in August 2013.
A well placed source told me there was a real fear at the highest level of the implications of riling Chelsea's overwhelmingly pro-Mourinho support, and that there was a concern of a return to the toxic scenes seen after the misguided appointment of Rafael Benitez as interim boss.
The repeated shows of support for the beleaguered Blues boss were expected – but the Kiev game seems to have been seen as some form of barometer to gauge the strength of feeling.
And it did not disappoint from the point of Mourinho – who seemed emboldened by it post-match, in a way he has seldom looked in recent weeks or months.
Chelsea have been on a charm offensive with the fans since the reappointment of Mourinho. The bigger prize is seen as the smooth development of the new Stamford Bridge – plans for which are expected to be revealed imminently.
Soon Roman Abramovich will expect to go to those same fans who sang Mourinho's name loud and clear, and ask for their Chelsea Pitch Owners (CPO) shares. And there is a concern that tricky task will be made all the more difficult if the Russian is perceived to have not given Mourinho a proper crack at the job.
Read more: Jose Mourinho thanks Chelsea supporters for patience
Jose Mourinho will be with Chelsea squad in spirit at Stoke
For the only larger crisis the club has seen in recent years, than the Benitez appointment, was the painful and still bitter botched attempt to take over CPO in 2011.
Whether or not Mourinho is aware of his status as bait for the very turf on which his team plays, is a matter of conjecture.
For his part he has spent the last week trying to manage expectations.
Going into the game against Dynamo, he insisted Chelsea did not need to win the game – merely draw it.
Afterwards, he said coming second in the Champions League group was the main aim, and that wining it would be additional window dressing.
He has also climbed down from the insistence that qualifying for next season's Champions League via the Premier League table is a certainty. That raises the possibility that the only way-in may be via lifting this year's Champions League – or even Europa League, the competition Mourinho once insisted he never wanted to win.
That this dilution of expectation has been accepted by so many Chelsea fans, shows the degree to which they have bought into the idea of him as the future of Chelsea – regardless of this current blip, the worst in the club's Premier League tenure.
There is no certainty either way, with a club governed on changing day-to-day priorities by an owner who has shown how bipolar he can be with managers.
But if this show of support can save Mourinho's job for however long, a job that I am told was truly lost: then his insistence to the fans that 'I am one of you now' will never have been truer.
