ronald koeman takes on jose mourinho this weekend well aware of how desperate his old friend will be to put chelsea's champions league disappointment behind them southampton face the unenviable task of trying to stifle a blues side not only chasing the premier league crown but wounded by wednesday's european exit to paris st germain chelsea failed to capitalise zlatan ibrahimovic's first half sending off, with the 2 2 extra time draw at stamford bridge ending their hopes of a memorable treble ronald koeman says he is looking forward to facing old friend, chelsea boss jose mourinho this weekend  mourinho takes questions during his press conference at chelsea's cobham training ground on friday  striker diego costa attempts an overhead kick during his side's 2 2 draw with psg at stamford bridge  chelsea captain john terry tussles with psg striker zlatan ibrahimovic during the champions league tie  chelsea players surround referee bjorn kuipers as he prepares to send off ibrahimovic in the first half  it was not the first underwhelming  blues performance of late, but koeman does not expect such displays to necessarily work in saints' 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 wednesday result 'if you play 60 minutes against 10 players, you don't expect that final result and maybe a little bit more under pressure 'they fight after the league 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 this match, 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 'it'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' mourinho (second from left) and koeman (far right) worked together at barcelona during the 1990s  current manchester united boss louis van gaal (far left) was manager of barca during this time  saints right back nathaniel clyne skips over the challenge of crystal palace forward dwight gayle  crystal palace striker yaya sanogo is challenged by saints defender ryan bertrand at st mary's  man management is key to mourinho's success, so too that koeman is enjoying this season saints have tailed off slightly 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 jaunt koeman took this side on a bonding trip to snowy switzerland, foregoing sun loungers and training for nordic skiing and ice hockey 'i saw some players skating and i don't think it was good for their confidence,' koeman said, smiling '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 skeptical 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 what we did and it was a great atmosphere over there' koeman recently took his southampton players on a skiing trip to bond in switzerland  southampton's italian striker striker graziano pelle takes a tumble while skiing in switzerland  jose fonte said the trip had brought the squad together and taken some of the stress of the season away  southampton's players during their recent trip to the swiss alps over the fa cup weekend 
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