Chelsea are regrouping again after their second coaching departure of the season, with Bruno Saltor tasked with taking on Liverpool on Tuesday.
Former Brighton and Hove Albion defender Bruno arrived at Stamford Bridge along with Graham Potter when he was appointed in place of Thomas Tuchel in September.
But Potter has also now been sacked, leaving Bruno in interim charge for a daunting first fixture at home to Liverpool.
It is at least a game that has relatively little riding on it for Chelsea, who are 11th in the Premier League with little chance of recovering Champions League qualification.
Still, Bruno knows there is always pressure for his players and has been taking preparation for the match seriously.
"[We are] seeing it as an opportunity for the players," he said. "We are representing Chelsea, a club with an amazing history.
"It is about winning, it is about dominating, and what we need to do is prepare for the game.
"Preparation helps a lot for performance, and that is what the players need to focus on."
Despite the disruption, Bruno suggested his Chelsea team would "keep as close as we can" to the side that lost to Aston Villa on Saturday, having believed the Blues "dominated".
Meanwhile, Liverpool's preparations have been a little more routine, although Jurgen Klopp's side have had little opportunity to get over Saturday's 4-1 defeat at Manchester City.
"We cannot work on the pitch, that's it," Klopp said on Monday. "Games like [City] have an impact. We might lose more confidence, but the desire to show a reaction is there as well. The boys are still good people.
"The short turnaround is a problem; at this moment, I have no clue who I can line up. We have to give the boys time to recover.
"There will be changes, definitely – 48 hours, then you travel, wait in London for the kick-off, it's all here [in the mind]. That's what we are working on."
PLAYERS TO WATCH
Chelsea – Kai Havertz
Chelsea need to rediscover their scoring touch, having failed to net in five home games this season, including four since the turn of the year.
Meanwhile, their shot conversion rate of 8.2 per cent is their lowest since records began in 1997-98. But Havertz had looked to be finding form before the Villa defeat, scoring in three consecutive games in all competitions.
Liverpool – Mohamed Salah
Chelsea let Salah go, and he has taken great enjoyment from punishing them ever since. He has four goals in 11 Premier League games against the Blues, with only Kevin De Bruyne (five) netting more goals against Chelsea among former players.
Salah was the last ex-Blue to score a league goal at Stamford Bridge, back in January 2022.
MATCH PREDICTION – DRAW
Liverpool are unbeaten in their past four Premier League away games against Chelsea, although they have never gone five league matches without defeat at Stamford Bridge.
There have been two Reds wins across those four games, but the past five meetings between Chelsea and Liverpool in all competitions have ended as draws. In fact, their past three encounters have finished goalless.
Chelsea will kick off in 11th, their lowest position this late in a season since their penultimate game in 1995-96, when they were also 11th when playing Tottenham. That game was also drawn.
OPTA WIN PROBABILITY
Chelsea - 31.1 per cent
Liverpool - 40.2 per cent
Draw - 28.7 per cent
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.
Bristol City Women 0-4 Man City Women: Hosts relegated as Fowler double inspires WSL leaders
Mary Fowler scored twice to set WSL leaders Manchester City on their way to a 4-0 rout of Bristol City, who suffered relegation as a result, on Sunday.
With Arsenal having drawn with Everton earlier in the day, Man City knew a victory would be enough to take the title race down to two teams.
That victory duly arrived in emphatic fashion, with all four of Man City's goals arriving in the second half.
Fowler's fantastic strike opened the scoring in the 62nd minute, with the Australia international doubling her tally soon after, paving the way for an Amy Rodgers own goal and Alex Greenwood's late header to seal a huge victory.
Arsenal are now out of the title race, with Chelsea - who have two games in hand on Gareth Taylor's team - the only side capable of catching Man City.
The Robins, meanwhile, will be playing in the second tier again next term.
Data Debrief: Bristol heading down with a whimper
Bristol City have failed to score in their last five games in the WSL, a run of 544 minutes without a goal.
They mustered just 0.09 expected goals (xG) to Man City's 3.4, with the visitors having now kept a clean sheet in nine of their 20 league games this season.
De Rossi demands more from 'tired' Roma ahead of crunch run
Daniele De Rossi acknowledged his Roma team may be tired, but he insisted they must not allow themselves to be embarrassed.
Roma fought back to draw 2-2 with last season's Serie A champions Napoli in a pulsating fixture on Sunday.
Tammy Abraham's late header secured a point for De Rossi's team, who took the lead through Paulo Dybala's penalty before going behind to goals from Matias Olivera and Victor Osimhen.
With Serie A set to have five teams in the Champions League next season, Roma occupy fifth spot with four matches remaining, but sixth-placed Atalanta are just two points behind with a game in hand.
There is also the small matter of a Europa League semi-final against Bundesliga champions Bayer Leverkusen on the cards over the coming weeks, and De Rossi set the stall out.
"We drew, it is not a result to throw away, but it is not the result or the performance that we wanted," Roma coach Daniele De Rossi told Sky Sports Italia.
"At times you can steal the ball off Napoli, but we then gave it back again too many times. Napoli had a lot of chances in the first half, we did better in the second, but we have to do better.
"Look, we are tired, but we cannot start thinking that we’re tired and that means we can be embarrassed in the final few weeks of the season."
Roma host Leverkusen on Thursday before taking on Juventus on May 5, with a crunch clash against Atalanta – who are also into the Europa League semi-finals – set to follow after the away leg against Xabi Alonso's team.
Key to a successful end to the campaign for Roma will be keeping Dybala fit. The Argentine has been involved in the joint-most goals (12) in Serie A since the turn of the year, scoring nine and setting up three, level with Juve's Dusan Vlahovic.
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