Michael Ballack made 167 appearances for the Blues over the course of a four-year spell at Stamford Bridge, and during his time at the club he was involved in many high-profile fixtures away at Liverpool, including some pivotal victories both domestically and in Europe.

Ballack’s last appearance for us at the stadium came in May 2010, when we headed north for our penultimate game of the Premier League season top of the table and in a fantastic position.

The title was clinched with a thumping 8-0 win over Wigan Athletic the following week, but it was the result at Anfield which went a long way to ensuring Carlo Ancelotti’s side were crowned champions.

‘It was a great feeling to know that by winning that game we would pretty much seal the title, there was no better place for us to do that than at Anfield,’ Ballack recalls. ‘It’s a historical stadium and it was a great feeling. Didier Drogba and Frank Lampard scored in a 2-0 win, we played really well and we were always in control of the game.

‘It was special to win the title that year because we hadn’t done it in the previous few seasons. We’d gone close but at the time Manchester United were also very strong. In Carlo we had a coach who could handle the team very well and winning the Double, which we did by beating Portsmouth in the FA Cup final, was a great achievement for us.’