Southampton boss Ronald Koeman takes on Jose Mourinho on Sunday well aware of how desperate his old friend will be to put Chelsea's Champions League exit behind them.
Koeman's men face the unenviable task of trying to stifle a Chelsea side not only chasing the Premier League title, but also wounded by Wednesday's elimination at the hands of Paris Saint-Germain.
The Blues failed to capitalise on Zlatan Ibrahimovic's first-half sending off, with the 2-2 extra time draw at Stamford Bridge ending their hopes of a memorable treble.
It was not their first underwhelming performance of late, but Koeman does not expect such displays to work in Southampton's favour this weekend.
"I don't know when it's a good time to face them,'' the Dutchman said. "It's always a difficult time.
"It's a big team, a strong team with some great players and of course they are very disappointed after the last result. If you play 60 minutes against 10 players, you don't expect that final result and maybe are a little bit more under pressure.
"They fight after the Capital One Cup title and after that, not the most important one, they fight for the title. They need a win after a disappointing result but they will give a reaction you normally expect as a manager.''
Ahead of the clash, Mourinho brashly declared that Chelsea would win the Premier League -- the kind of comments Koeman takes with a pinch of salt.
The pair worked together under Louis van Gaal at Barcelona in the late-1990s and retain a close relationship to this day.
"I know him very well,'' Koeman said. "He's a good friend and great coach and a very successful manager. It was nice in our period in Barcelona and it's always nice to meet Jose and we look forward.
"When I was with Jose, the assistant of Van Gaal in Barcelona in '98 and '99, it was a long time ago and it's not always easy to know what will happen in the future. At that time he was very ambitious as a coach and he had good coaches to see what he needs to be a successful coach.''
Southampton have tailed off in the Premier League recently but returned to winning ways against Crystal Palace last time out, before making the most of a 10-day break by jetting off on a mid-season trip to snowy Switzerland.
"I saw some players skating and I don't think it was good for their confidence,'' Koeman joked. "It was something totally different and we choose Davos because of the relationship between Southampton and Switzerland -- Katharina [Liebherr] the owner and the chairman is there.
"It was totally different to lying on the beach on Dubai. If they like to go to Dubai, they can go in the summer. We did some activities which was great. Some players were sceptical before going but everybody was happy with what we did.
"It was a good week but playing football is totally different. Always you know if you stay together the whole day and do some different activities there is more time to talk.
"Players had free time and you see characters of players, difficulties, but they did a great job because they achieve everything that we did and it was a great atmosphere over there.''