Chelsea returned to winning ways on Saturday, ending a week that threatened to wreck their season, with a smashing victory against Southampton that gave manager Thomas Tuchel newfound hope for the difficulties that lay ahead.
A 6-0 thrashing of Saints at St Mary's puts the Blues up for another important week as they attempt to rescue their Champions League championship defense before heading to Wembley for an FA Cup semi-final against Crystal Palace.
They will head to Spain with renewed confidence, hoping to erase a 3-1 first-leg deficit against Real Madrid at the Bernabeu after two goals apiece from Mason Mount and Timo Werner spurred them to their greatest away win of the season.
Tuchel had announced their tie with the record 13-time champions. Real was gone after Wednesday's game at Stamford Bridge, when he described his team's performance as "alarming."
But, after humiliating Southampton on Saturday, will they be able to turn things around?
Southampton supporters may have dreaded a third 9-0 thrashing of Ralph Hasenhuttl's reign following the crushing defeats at Manchester United in February 2021 and at home to Leicester in October 2019.
Hasenhuttl said that he was witnessing many of the same old difficulties versus Chelsea.
"The only chance we have against a club like Chelsea is when we are hot and they are not," the Austrian continued.
"At the moment, we are not certain that we can press such a squad."
"It was quite upsetting to watch us revert to behaviors that we believed had passed us by."