The Blues' stuttering season almost hit a new low on Saturday when they narrowly avoided crashing out of the FA Cup in what was a dismal 1-1 draw against Birmingham.
An Italian journalist had flown over to assess Chelsea ahead of Tuesday's last-16 first leg against Napoli and made it clear afterwards he felt Walter Mazzarri's men had little to fear.
His brief grilling of Blues boss Villas-Boas may have been delivered in broken English but there was no disputing what he meant.
How could a side who failed to beat lower league opponents missing half of their first-choice line-up ever hope to handle one of Serie A's finest?
"Because it's football and it happens just like that when you least expect it," was Villas-Boas' reply.
"Napoli is a strong team but we are a strong team - we still believe."
The bluntness of his challenger's assessment would have stung but Villas-Boas attempted to laugh off the exchange in what was a welcome moment of light relief amid more questions about the Portuguese's future, player power and the abject form of Fernando Torres.
Villas-Boas insisted his job did not depend on the Napoli tie and furiously denied claims substitute Didier Drogba had delivered a half-time team talk when Chelsea were 1-0 behind.
Television pictures certainly showed Drogba leading a discussion with his team-mates in the tunnel before the start of the second half.
But Villas-Boas was clearly irked at the suggestion it constituted a team talk of the kind usually conducted by a manager in the dressing room.
Such defensiveness was unsurprising considering the 34-year-old had admitted only two days earlier that there was effectively a degree of unrest among certain members of his squad.
Torres is unlikely to be among that number having started every match since Drogba departed on African Nations Cup duty.
But the Spaniard still chose to sit in the dressing room rather than with his team-mates on the bench after being rightly hauled off at half-time.
The Chelsea fans have been unbelievably loyal in their backing of the £50million man since he signed a year ago but there was a sense on Saturday that even they were now struggling to keep the faith.
Villas-Boas' decision to put Drogba and Salomon Kalou on the bench as an insurance policy - despite claiming 48 hours earlier that both would be held back for Napoli - spoke volumes about his own private thoughts.
The Chelsea boss nevertheless maintained his public backing of Torres, saying: "He is a super-talent of world football.
"Eventually, things will get better for him.
"As Fernando gets back to his goals, he will gain more confidence and I'm sure that he knows that as well."
Four wins from 13 matches has sucked the confidence not just from Torres - even the usually-sterling Juan Mata had an afternoon to forget.
Villas-Boas said: "It's normal with the results that you are having.
"You need an extra mental push.
"Until you get out of the cycle with a win, for sure it perpetuates a little bit."
Villas-Boas needs the leaders in his team more than ever if Chelsea are to get a positive result in Napoli.
That means giving John Terry and Ashley Cole until the last minute to prove their fitness, while also recalling Drogba and Frank Lampard.
The same players could well be required to navigate next month's FA Cup fifth-round replay at St Andrew's.
Birmingham boss Chris Hughton said: "Whenever we've gone into a game, we've always gone in with a really committed team, whatever the opposition has been.
"Most people would still see Chelsea as the favourites to go through because that comes with Premier League status.
"But I just hope we can give them as good a game as we did today."
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