Inter Milan slumped to a fifth successive game without a win as rock-bottom Novara walked away from the San Siro on Sunday with a stunning 1-0 victory.
Andrea Caracciolo scored the only goal of a game in which the hosts never really got out of second gear.
Inter have now lost four out of their past five games, including their Italian Cup defeat by Napoli.
Before that they had put seven wins in a row together but Claudio Ranieri’s side have lost their way and remain six points off the final Champions League qualification place.
“It was a difficult game against an in-form team who kept it tight and countered,” said Ranieri about Novara, who had not won in 10 games ahead of this meeting.
“We dominated but we didn’t score any goals, whereas Caracciolo, unfortunately, scored a great one. No one held back, everyone showed commitment and application but we’re going through a difficult period.
“But if we keep calm and work hard we’ll get out of it, as we did a while back.”
Inter had already suffered a disastrous start to the season in which they won only two of their first nine league games.
They had turned that around with nine wins out of 10 but with one point from 12 in their last four games in the league, they are going to have to start all over again.
“We had 20 shots, although admittedly many were off target, and we hit the woodwork for the 13th time this season,” added Ranieri.
“Things didn’t go well.”
Novara remained bottom despite the win but are at least level on points with Cesena above them and now only four points from safety.
“I’m happy for the team and the fans. We’ve given ourselves a chance (of survival) from a game that no-one expected us to win,” said the match-winner.
“They’re great players, they had more of the ball but we did really well.”
Following last week’s disastrous 4-0 capitulation at Roma, Ranieri shifted things around, playing Diego Milito as a loan frontman with Dutch playmaker Wesley Sneijder and Argentine Ricardo Alvarez behind him.
Novara stunned their hosts 10 minutes into the second period when Caracciolo created space outside the box and curled a sumptuous left-foot effort around goalkeeper Julio Cesar.
In other games, Pablo Barrientos scored a brace as Catania thumped Genoa 4-0, while Atalanta and Lecce played out a 0-0 draw.
