Eidur's a prizefighter

Given all the big-name players in Chelsea's stellar squad, it's odd to think that what unites them is a lack of trophies. For all the huge transfer fees, mega wages and international reputations, their sideboards are hardly creaking with silverware.

The Portuguese contingent brought to the club by Jose Mourinho are just as expensively decorated as their head coach. Claude Makelele filled his boots during his time at Real Madrid but the rest of the squad can make no such claims.

Arjen Robben and Jiri Jarosik probably prize their Dutch and Czech Championship winners' medals, while Alexei Smertin is sure to be equally attached to the French League Cup title he picked up with Bordeaux, but these are hardly achievements recognised on a global scale.

There are some big names in Mourinho's squad who have yet to experience that winning feeling.

Didier Drogba, John Terry and Frank Lampard do not have a single trophy to show for their entire professional careers and Eidur Gudjohnsen's only medal came from Chelsea's 2000 Charity Shield victory over Manchester United. Gianluca Vialli's side beat the champions in the last game of this type played at Wembley but it proved to be another false dawn as the Italian was out of a job the following month.

Gudjohnsen, 26, jokes that the last real trophy he won came in an Under-16 tournament but such levity belies the seriousness of his intent. Chelsea's senior players were shamed into silence when Mourinho, who possesses more medals than a war veteran, asked them what they had won on the first day of pre-season training. They are determined to have plenty to shout about by this summer.

Make no mistake, Sunday's Carling Cup Final against Liverpool at the Millennium Stadium will be approached as if it was the Champions League Final in Istanbul.

Gudjohnsen said: "We've always made it very clear from the start that we were taking this competition seriously, as has the manager. This is a competition that we would be very happy to win because any trophy on the day for any team is always special and will always bring a lot of happy memories. When you look at the tournament in the latter stages, Manchester United fielded their strongest team against us, which says a lot.