A hop, skip and jump were all Jorginho needed in the eyes of some to wash away the concerns against Manchester United this past Saturday.
Although his penalty kick did not capture the three points Chelsea craved, it did give him the most Premier League penalties scored since joining Chelsea at the start of the 2018/19 season from Napoli.
His speciality from six yards has rarely been in question but that is not where deeper concerns lie over his longevity at the base of Chelsea's most uncertain area. Graham Potter's swift move to introduce Mateo Kovacic before the interval against United reflected a tactical flaw that was being exposed.
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Jorginho and Ruben Loftus-Cheek had been swamped by United's midfield and the Italian's severe lack of mobility and physicality was impossible to ignore. Chelsea regained some control in a game that was severely drifting away from them.
With the Italian being asked to press up in search of the ball more than before, his lack of speed to recover is becoming more evident without sufficient protection behind him.
Potter is dealing with the same tricky balancing act his predecessors fought with in central midfield. With a durable and willing Jorginho but who has his limitations, a now fragile N'Golo Kante sadly plagued by injury, and Kovacic also still feeling the effects of a persistent knee problem, only Loftus-Cheek appears the most reliable in an increasingly strained area.
Potter has been dealt a hand all too familiar to Chelsea supporters, and it is hard to feel like he can drastically alter those concerns until the January transfer window opens.
Six fixtures stand between Potter and the break for a World Cup, it would not be unlike Jorginho to play a majority of those available minutes, although there is a serious question over whether he should be. There are still signs of his quality on occasions when Chelsea do dominate the majority of possession and push opponents back into their own half.
Although the Italian's defensive flaws are not new revelations they feel increasingly apparent as his impact on the ball has deteriorated. The solution is not an obvious one for Potter, who has mainly stuck with the players Thomas Tuchel used.
There is one wildcard he could use should he feel the need to experiment, however, and simultaneously take Jorginho out of the firing line. Denis Zakaria is still to play a single minute for Chelsea since joining on loan from Juventus on transfer deadline day.
Although he has suffered injury setbacks that halted what looked to be an increasing rise with Borussia Monchengladbach, it does not reflect brilliantly on his quality that given the injury issues faced and frequent rotation by Potter, the Swiss midfielder is yet to make his debut.
Zakaria is unlikely to be a metronomic figure, nor the midfield enforcer many have craved since the exit of Nemanja Matic in 2017. However, with fixtures piling up and a feeling again of predictability in an area in desperate need of a revamp, could Zakaria offer something new?
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