Luis Enrique stressed that this weekend will not be decisive in the La Liga title race as Barcelona take on fourth-placed Atletico Madrid at the Vicente Calderon on Sunday.
League leaders Real Madrid, meanwhile, who have won just one of their five away games in 2017, travel to Villarreal, who boast the league's strongest defence.
However, Barca coach Luis Enrique was keen to keep it brief as he dodged questions about his side's recent form, the morale in the dressing room and the fitness of Javier Mascherano and Arda Turan.
"No, it is not a key weekend at all," he replied in Saturday's news conference when asked if results on Sunday could play a big part in where the title goes in May.
"But there are games between direct rivals, while others face teams doing well in the league. You could say it's special, but sometimes you can drop points in the strangest of games so I don't think it will be decisive."
Barca followed up their defeat to Paris Saint-Germain in the Champions League with a scrappy win against Leganes last weekend in what was another off-colour performance.
Questioned on what he'd learned from those two games, Luis Enrique refused to go into detail and when asked about the current morale among the players, he merely responded: "Since I arrived the dressing room has always been united."
There were no updates on Mascherano or Turan, either, with both players closing in on returns to action, although the trip to Atletico is expected to come too soon for the former.
Madrid's midweek defeat to Valencia means the Blaugrana could temporarily move to the top of the table with a win, but not even that was enough to excite Luis Enrique.
"The target is to win the [Atletico] game and get three points," was all he said when asked about the possibility of leapfrogging Madrid, who have one point more than Barca but have played one game less.
And summing up the mood of the news conference, while managers such as Jurgen Klopp and Jose Mourinho have been effusive in their praise for sacked Leicester City coach Claudio Ranieri this week, Luis Enrique offered a more blunt reply.
"There are always two sides to the story when a manager is sacked: it's bad for one manager, but good for the one that comes in," he said. "That's the world that coaches work in.
"I don't know if they sacked managers as regularly 20 years ago, but that's the profession we live in. If you don't like it, get out. You have to learn to live with these decisions."