Chelsea may have a secret advantage as they face Crystal Palace tomorrow in Graham Potter's first Premier League match in charge.
The game comes nearly one month after Chelsea last played - a 1-1 draw against RB Salzburg in the Champions League - and comes at a ground that hasn't been lucky for the new Blues boss, but he has a way to get around that.
Having played at Selhurst Park three times as Brighton manager Potter was unable to win any of the games, drawing all three 1-1. That itself follows a similar trend across his managerial career in which he is yet to beat the Eagles in six attempts but has only lost two of those.
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One caveat here is that the sides were a lot closer matched than Chelsea and Palace are, plus the added intensity of the Brighton-Palace rivalry as opposed to the slightly lessened London derby heat between Potter's new club and Patrick Viera's side.
Nevertheless, the return to fixtures will come with two big boosts for Potter who looks to get underway in the league with a win. After a period that felt a lot like pre-season, the real season starts now, and central to that could be former Crystal Palace player Ruben Loftus-Cheek.
The 26-year-old spent a season on loan with Palace in 2017/18 in what was effectively his true breakthrough as a player, going from a bit-part option at Stamford Bridge to starting games and becoming an important first team star in red and blue. Loftus-Cheek ended the season with two Premier League goals, doubling his tally of one at Chelsea, and four assists.
Looking back, the versatile midfielder said, "It helped me massively, I was 20 at the time, and I was seeking first-team football. Palace were a team who came up, and Frank de Boer wanted to work with me, and I wanted to work under him.
“He had a good philosophy going into the season. He didn’t have the best start to the season, and Roy [Hodgson] came in. I really developed under Roy. I got so much first-team football, and I felt like I had matured as a player. I came back ready to be a Chelsea player, so it was a really impactful year for my football [career].”
Following that season, Loftus-Cheek was part of England's World Cup squad, something he is now all but certain to miss out on in the winter, but it did help him to establish himself at Stamford Bridge, playing 24 league matches the season after under Maurizio Sarri.
As Chelsea return with Loftus-Cheek having started the season well, despite playing at wing-back, right wing and as a double-pivot, he has played 423 minutes in the six league matches, already a third of what he managed last season. With his experience of a hostile stadium and promising direct opponents, Loftus-Cheek enjoys playing at Palace's ground.
“I love going back,” he added. “I have a connection with the fans still, which is really nice. The stadium is so loud, and it has so much energy in it, which isn’t going to be good for us when we’re going there. A lot of really nice memories at Palace, especially scoring there. I look back with happy memories of that place.”
On top of Loftus-Cheek, who spent the international break back at Cobham and had a great opportunity to impress Potter in person, Chelsea also have Conor Gallagher in their ranks. The 22-year-old is another player with Palace connections and even scored against Potter's Brighton at the AMEX stadium last season.
Having not had the most fluid of starts to life at Chelsea, Potter's system, with two advanced midfielders, may well suit Gallagher better. He scored eight times under Viera last season and was understood to be the subject of a £27m bid from Steve Parish over the summer.
Now, with a point to prove for both club and country, Gallagher will be returning more determined than ever to win at Selhurst Park, and Potter may well be wise to make the most of the inside knowledge he can gain on his French counterpart through his two former Palace loan players.
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