Lazio relinquished their place at the top of Serie A on Sunday when they were comprehensively beaten at struggling Bologna.
Marco Di Vaio scored twice to add to Sergio Volpi's early opener as the hosts romped to a 3-0 half-time lead, reducing Tommaso Rocchi's goal shortly after the break to nothing more than a consolation.
The victory snapped a run of five straight defeats for Daniele Arrigoni's men, elevating them from 18th to 15th in the table, but defeat for Lazio means they slip to fourth, one point behind joint leaders Udinese, Catania and Napoli, pending the outcome of the later match between Roma and Internazionale.
Despite an impressive start to the season which has yielded four wins from six and just one defeat, Lazio looked out of sorts throughout this fixture.
They boast one of the strongest attacks in the league having scored 15 goals so far, but at the other end of pitch, their defensive performance will give Delio Rossi plenty to worry about.
They were undone twice from set-pieces in the opening 12 minutes, although no credit should be take away from Volpi's curling free-kick from just outside the box in the fifth minute, which was superb.
Seven minutes later Stephan Lichsteiner fouled Francesco Valiani near the left corner and Volpi's inswinging free-kick found Di Vaio who tucked the ball into the bottom far corner, off the inside of the post, to give Bologna a dream start.
Di Vaio grabbed his second in the 27th minute when he controlled a long ball out of defense from Davide Marchini, beat Sebastiano Siviglia with a deft touch and stroked the ball into the bottom left corner.
Rossi looked to shake things up at the break by bringing on Rocchi, who made his season debut after recovering from injury, in place of Serie A top scorer Mauro Zarate and the switch paid off almost immediately.
Five minutes into the second half Lazio reduced the deficit when Rocchi beat the offside trap and shot from inside the box. That effort was saved by Francesco Antonioli but the goalkeeper could only push the ball back to the Rocchi's feet and the striker scored with the second attempt.
The visitors pressed forward in search of a second goal, and it almost came in the 56th minute when Stefano Mauri marauded down the left wing, skilfully beating three players before crossing into the box, but Rocchi's header was brilliantly saved by Antoniolia low down to his left.
Gaby Mudingayi had a chance to extend Bologna's lead in the 78th minute when he collected Claudio Terzi's flick-on on the edge of the area, but despite having time and space, dragged his shot wide.
