Chelsea head to the Etihad Stadium on Sunday for our first outing of the new year, looking to return to winning ways following our draw with Bournemouth at Stamford Bridge last time out.

We will do so with a new face in the dugout, with McFarlane to lead the Blues at the Etihad Stadium on Sunday - stepping up temporarily from his role as Under-21s head coach - following the departure of Enzo Maresca on New Year's Day.

With a quick turnaround from being tasked with leading the side, to preparing the players and then facing Pep Guardiola and his City side, it’s fair to say the past 24 hours or so have been something of a whirlwind for McFarlane. So how does the man himself reflect on recent developments?

‘It's been a crazy 24 hours, a whirlwind as you can imagine, but it’s also been really enjoyable and exciting,’ McFarlane told the gathered media at Cobham. ‘I can only be positive about it.

‘We don’t know what the future beyond this game is but right now, the brief is just to prepare the lads for Man City on Sunday. That’s all I’m focused on.

‘We will go there looking to give a good account of ourselves and trying to obtain a good result. That’s the brief and that’s what we are working on.

‘Of course, we know will be facing a good team, in good form and led by a great manager. But we have good players too and we will be going into the game being as positive as possible.’

McFarlane was asked whether there was an update on any players being declared fit to face the Cityzens, most notably Marc Cucurella after he missed the draw with Bournemouth last time out.

The Spaniard could return at the Etihad Stadium, after returning to training, but McFarlane has said the defender will be assessed over the next day or so.

‘With Marc it is positive [that he’s back training] and we will see with him,’ he added. ‘We’re undecided on that [whether he will play], I don’t have the full information on him as of yet.

‘Otherwise we don’t have any other updates on players at the moment.’