Chelsea's players are being united by the club's off-field issues and will not let the ongoing uncertainty affect their performances, according to captain Cesar Azpilicueta.
Blues owner Roman Abramovich put the club up for sale earlier this month and has since had his assets frozen by the United Kingdom government and the European Union.
Abramovich has close ties with Russian president Vladimir Putin and was sanctioned following his country's invasion of Ukraine, putting the club's sale in doubt.
However, Abramovich can still apply for a special licence to sell the club, provided none of the proceeds benefit the Russian oligarch.
A number of interested parties stepped forward with offers ahead of last Friday's deadline, and it has been reported a deal could go through before the end of the month.
While takeover talk has dominated over the past three weeks, it has been business as usual for Chelsea on the pitch with six wins in a row in all competitions.
And Azpilicueta, who is away with Spain on international duty, insists it is a case of taking each day as it comes at Stamford Bridge until the ownership situation is resolved.
"We are living in moments of uncertainty at Chelsea, that is the reality," Azpilicueta told a news conference.
"The uncertainty isn't great, but what we players have to do is work. We are entering a decisive phase of the season and the situation is out of our hands.
"We are experiencing something new. Day by day we discover information, but on a day-to-day basis nothing has affected us. We have not experienced major changes."
As part of the sanctions, Chelsea have been prevented from selling merchandise or new tickets.
That may force the Blues to play next month's Champions League quarter-final first leg against Real Madrid without any fans at Stamford Bridge.
"I'm not sure what the latest is with tickets against Madrid," Azpilicueta said. "Of course we'd rather have fans behind us for that game.
"But the predisposition for the squad has always been to act in the right way. There is unity and strength from the team and the fans.
"We are living in moment of uncertainty, but we are very united. There is always a predisposition to help out where we can."
Azpilicueta has spent the past 10 seasons with Chelsea and has won every trophy available at club level over that time, most recently lifting the Club World Cup in February.
The 32-year-old is out of contract at the end of the campaign and is reportedly close to agreeing terms with Barcelona ahead of becoming a free agent.
However, Azpilicueta was not willing to discuss his future when probed on the topic on Wednesday.
"This is not the place or the time," he said. "What we have learned with the pandemic is to live day to day and in the moment."
Indonesia 0-4 Japan: Visitors stay unbeaten with rout
Japan continued their unbeaten start to World Cup qualifying with a 4-0 victory over Indonesia on Friday.
Two goals from the visitors in either half were enough to seal the three points and get them back to winning ways after a stalemate with Australia last time out.
Ragnar Oratmangoen should have put Indonesia ahead, but he hesitated one-on-one with the goalkeeper, and Japan did not look back after that. They got a bit of fortune with their first goal, Justin Hubner deflecting a cross into his own net in the 35th minute.
Takumi Minamino got their second just before the break, finishing off a pacy counter-attack by darting onto the end of Kaoru Mitoma’s cross to sweep it past Maarten Paes.
While there was not much the goalkeeper could do with that one, he was at fault for the third as he gifted the ball to Hidemasa Morita, who coolly picked out the bottom corner just after the break.
Yukinari Sugawara came off the bench to round off the scoring in the 69th minute. He raced down the right wing and instead of looking to his options, he rifled it in from a tight angle at the near post.
Japan are up to 13 points after five games, sitting top of Group C, while Indonesia are bottom, still in search of their first win.
Data Debrief: Clinically done
For a team still chasing their first win, Japan are probably not high on the list of opponents they would want to face, and Indonesia were undone by their visitors.
Hajime Moriyasu's side created 0.79 expected goals (xG) to Indonesia's 0.72, while they only had four more shots than their hosts (12 compared to eight).
Japan took their chances, and though the win margin may look harsh, they were deserving of the three points, having dominated throughout the game.
Jamaica 0-1 United States: Pepi give visitors advantage in Nations League quarter-final
Ricardo Pepi's first-half strike gave the United States a 1-0 advantage over Jamaica after the first leg of their Concacaf Nations League quarter-final.
The hosts saw a penalty saved in the first half before their frustrations were compounded late on thanks to Mason Holgate's red card.
The USA had the lead just five minutes in – having smothered a Jamaica attack at one end, the visitors caught them out with a pacy counter-attack, with Pepi sweeping it into the back of the net.
Shortly after, Shamar Nicholson was brought down by Matt Turner when he tried to take it around him, but the goalkeeper made amends, diving low to his right to deny Demarai Gray from 12 yards.
In the second half, Holgate was denied a tap-in by Yunus Musah before Turner scrambled to stop Leon Bailey's corner from nestling into the net as Jamaica searched for an equaliser.
With 86 minutes on the clock, Holgate received a second yellow card in just over 10 minutes for dragging Brandon Vazquez back, meaning he will miss the return leg in Missouri on Monday.
Data Debrief: Hitting the mark
Pepi got the all-important goal on Thursday, and is the fourth player to score 12 goals for the USA before turning 22 years old, joining Landon Donovan, Jozy Altidore and Christian Pulisic.
But it was perhaps Turner who actually had the most vital interventions; he has now saved three of the eight penalties he's faced for the USA, including two against Jamaica.
Mauricio Pochettino also could not have asked for a better result from his first competitive game in charge of the Stars and Stripes as he became just the third full-time manager to win his first competitive away match, joining Bob Bradley (2008) and Steve Sampson (1996).
Real Madrid hit Twente for seven, five-star Wolfsburg also win big
Real Madrid had six different goalscorers as they trounced Twente 7-0 in the Women's Champions League on Wednesday, while Wolfsburg beat Galatasaray 5-0.
Signe Bruun opened the scoring three minutes into the Group B encounter at the Estadio Alfredo Di Stefano, then Maria Mendez's header gave Madrid a 2-0 half-time lead.
Madrid, who had won one and lost one of their opening two games in the tournament, got a third through Naomie Feller five minutes into the second half, then Caroline Weir made it 4-0 with a brilliant free-kick.
Mendez headed home her second of the encounter shortly after the hour mark, while Oihane Hernandez and Carla Camacho got on the scoresheet late on to complete the rout.
The victory took Madrid second in the Group B standings ahead of Chelsea's trip to Celtic.
Wolfsburg were also convincing victors in Group A, getting off the mark for this season's competition as Rebecka Blomqvist scored a hat-trick in their 5-0 thrashing of Galatasaray.
The Bundesliga side – who failed to pick up a point or score a goal in their opening two matches – had a narrow 1-0 lead at half-time through Joelle Wedemeyer, before Blomqvist took centre-stage in the second period.
She tapped home after Janina Minge struck the crossbar, then added her second goal in the 77th minute and her third six minutes into stoppage time.
Vivien Endemann powered home a fifth for Wolfsburg one minute later, as they provisionally moved within three points of Lyon and Roma ahead of their meeting.
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