Eidur Gudjohnsen joined Chelsea from Bolton in the summer of 2000 and quickly became a fans’ favourite, with his clever movement, finishing ability and eye for a pass proving pivotal in the years that followed.

He left for Barcelona in 2006 having won the Premier League twice and competed in some memorable European ties, included against the Catalan club who we face again later this month. That 2005 epic is one of the games we bring up, but it is at the beginning of his time at Chelsea that we start our interview with the Iceman…



YOU HAD MADE A FEW SUBSTITUTE APPEARANCES BUT YOU MARKED YOUR FULL DEBUT WITH A GOAL AGAINST LIVERPOOL. WHAT DO YOU REMEMBER OF THAT DAY?

Claudio Ranieri had recently come in after Gianluca Vialli had left. We played a sort of 4-3-3, Jimmy was up front and I was on the right-hand side. I remember I had a brilliant game. I set Jimmy up for his first goal. We were 2-0 up after about 25 minutes, and I thought 'I’m not going to make this'. The tempo was so high I thought my legs were going to give way, I couldn’t breathe. It was quite warm as well and I was just thinking 'please get me to half-time'. Then you get through it, I suppose because everything is expanding still as a young boy! High intensity, adrenalin.

Getting the goal topped off our performance and my performance on the day. It was a great feeling to open my account for a new team. Probably not many people had seen me play a lot leading up to that, so it was a great feeling.