Graham Potter has told his Chelsea players there can be no excuses for failure in 2023 – even as injuries strike at the heart of their squad.
The head coach will be without the sidelined Reece James, Ben Chilwell, N'Golo Kante and Wesley Fofana, among others, as Chelsea begin the new year at Nottingham Forest on Sunday.
Chelsea have lost their last three away games, last losing on four consecutive road trips in January and February 2019 under Maurizio Sarri, so the imperative is to end that dire streak immediately. Potter says he is experiencing his most "challenging" time as a coach.
Second-bottom Forest have not hosted Chelsea at the City Ground since February 1999, and Potter is wary of what he expects to be a fierce welcome by the River Trent.
However, the former Brighton and Hove Albion knows any grumbles about injuries simply will not wash, with Chelsea having an expensively assembled squad that is expected to deliver results.
Potter said: "Our job now is to try and get as many people back as we can. It's been a real tough period, as challenging as it's been I would say, in my time as a coach, but we're Chelsea and people don't want to hear those reasons, excuses.
"You've got to get on with it. And we've got to try your best to find the answers."
Forest were well beaten by Manchester United on Tuesday, going down 3-0 at Old Trafford, but they scored a home win against Liverpool in October, with Jurgen Klopp's team guilty of missing a host of chances that day.
Potter said: "Forest got a fantastic result against Liverpool. I have huge respect for Steve Cooper and the job that he's done there.
"He's tremendous, a fantastic coach. So they'll be ready, the atmosphere will be hostile. They're back in the Premier League for the first year for a long, long time.
"So every game, especially Chelsea coming to town, is a big game for them. So they'll be motivated, and they'll have the quality and they'll be fighting for the points. So we have to be ready."
Mateo Kovacic and Hakim Ziyech were absent as Chelsea beat Bournemouth 2-0 on Tuesday, but both have since returned from World Cup duty.
Chelsea have beaten Forest in their last seven meetings, the last of which was a 2-0 FA Cup third-round win in January 2020, and the Blues have only been beaten once in their last 11 away league games against promoted teams (W8 D2).
These two sides have made highly contrasting starts to recent calendar years, with Forest winning their opening league game in each of the past four years, albeit in the Championship each time.
Chelsea, in sharp contrast, have not mustered a win from their first league game in any of the last six calendar years (D4 L2), and last endured a longer bleak run in year-opening league games from 1929 to 1938, when they had four draws and six losses in a 10-game span.
Chelsea's 2022 included a disruptive change of ownership as the club passed out of Roman Abramovich's hands and into the control of Todd Boehly.
Potter then replaced former head coach Thomas Tuchel in September, and there are hopes a new year will bring stability as well as success.
"We want to keep improving. There's a simple answer," Potter said, when asked for his new year wishes for the team.
"We've had a challenging [time], some ups and some downs in terms of the previous year, which is normal, I think, in any football club, but we want to try and stabilise, and we want to try and improve and make our supporters happy.
"We know that before the break, the last few weeks, it wasn't nice for us. Results suffered and performances weren't where we'd like them to be. So we have to do better than that."
Premier League clubs agree in principle to new spending cap
Premier League clubs have voted in favour of the competition potentially creating a spending cap, according to widespread reports.
The Premier League will now work on the studies and legal analysis required to possibly introduce a cap model from the start of the 2025-26 season onwards.
This would replace the current Profit and Sustainability Rules (PSR), under which Everton and Nottingham Forest have both been deducted points this season, while Leicester City have been charged with a breach.
At a meeting on Monday, 16 clubs voted in favour of the Premier League performing the required analysis. The model will then be presented to club's at the annual general meeting in June, for another vote.
According to reports, Manchester United, Manchester City and Aston Villa voted against the introduction of a spending cap, which would be tied to a multiple of whatever the lowest-earning side receives via the league's centralised broadcast and commercial deals. Chelsea were said to have abstained.
The cap would form part of the Premier League's "squad cost" rules, which will eventually replace the PSR.
While Everton have secured their safety despite suffering two points deductions worth eight points, Nottingham Forest remain in a relegation battle having been docked four points.
Forest will soon find out the result of their appeal, while Everton were set to have their appeal against the second of their deductions heard in the coming weeks.
Leicester, who have been promoted from the Championship, could face a points deduction next season, having been charged with a breach of the Premier League's regulations during the 2022-23 campaign.
Chelsea, meanwhile, seemingly got around the rules due to their ownership selling two Stamford Bridge hotels to another company within their group.
'We need tactics, but also luck' – Tuchel says Bayern up against Madrid 'aura'
Thomas Tuchel has warned his Bayern Munich team they will not only be facing Real Madrid in the Champions League semi-finals, but also going up against Los Blancos' European "aura".
While Tuchel will leave the Allianz Arena having suffered the ignominy of overseeing Bayern's first failure to win the Bundesliga title since 2012, he could yet bring Europe's top prize to Bavaria.
Bayern reached the last four with a 3-2 aggregate triumph over Arsenal, but they face a daunting task against the team that eliminated holders Manchester City in the last round.
Bayern are winless in their last seven games against Madrid, losing six and drawing one, and Los Blancos have won on their last three trips to the Allianz Arena – the longest winning streak ever recorded by a visiting team at Bayern in European Cup/Champions League history.
Coming up against Madrid in a competition they regard as their own, Tuchel believes, presents an additional challenge.
"When you're playing against Real Madrid, you're also up against the aura and the legend that surrounds them," Tuchel said at Monday's pre-match press conference.
"Obviously we need tactics, but also some luck. You can achieve a lot with tactics. The approach is the car, and the players drive it.
"We need to find a good balance and moments where we have solutions. The players also need freedom to bring it to life.
"But obviously we also need some luck in the game. We need to coax out that luck a bit as well."
Bayern versus Madrid is already the most played fixture in European Cup/Champions League history, taking place 26 times with 24 of those coming in the knockout stages.
Tuchel believes the tie would have been a fitting final, adding: "The semi-final already feels a bit like the final. My approach is to line up like a final.
"We won't approach it with the background that there's still a game to play. We want to play the game in isolation. We have the freedom, we'll put everything in tomorrow and then we'll see."
Alcaraz's pursuit for third straight Madrid Open crown continues
Carlos Alcaraz boosted his hopes of a third straight Madrid Open title as he comfortably beat Thiago Seyboth Wild to reach the fourth round on Sunday.
Back in his home country of Spain, Alcaraz eased to a 6-3 6-3 triumph to set up a fourth-round clash with Jan-Lennard Struff, whom he beat in last year's final.
The first six games of the opening set went to serve, but Alcaraz found a crucial break in the seventh and ninth games of the set to put him in pole position for victory, a lead he would not relinquish as he overcame being broken in the seventh game of the second set to seal his safe progression.
Holger Rune was a surprise casualty as the world number 12 was defeated 6-4 4-6 6-3 by Tallon Griekspoor, though world number eight Andrey Rublev eased through with a straight-sets win over Alejandro Davidovich Fokina.
Data Debrief
With his triumph over Seyboth Wild at the Madrid Open, Alcaraz has now won 93.3 per cent of his games at the tournament. That is the highest win percentage of any player with at least 10 games played in a single ATP-1000 event since the format was introduced in 1990.
Against Seyboth Wild, Alcaraz won 27 of his 31 first-serve points, also recording 19 winners to his opponent's 10 as he dominated the contest on his way to victory.
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