The Portuguese winger told us all about his rise to the top, going deep into a back story that began with a pair of roller skates at the age of three.

'I started out playing roller-skate hockey,' the 24-year-old explained. 'In our home town, we had a club that was really well-known and we used to fight for championships in the first division. My father used to play for them and I remember we went to the stadium to watch, and it was always full.

'I played until I was about 14, when I was already looking forward to going to Braga as a footballer, but my father was my coach at that time and he said that I had to finish my season in roller-skate hockey first.

'You can see, when I run I always have the tendency of leaning forward and this comes a little bit from hockey. Even the way that I protect the ball… I always remember the fathers of my team-mates when I was at Braga used to say: "This kid brings the way that he played hockey to the football field as well!"'

Pedro Neto, who made his name in England during a five-year spell with Wolverhampton Wanderers, has fallen in love with Premier League football and can’t wait to see what he and his Chelsea team-mates can achieve.

'I always looked to Chelsea as an amazing club. I remember one of my favourite players when I was growing up – Eden Hazard – playing here as well. It’s an historic club, with the players we’ve had here. I always looked at Chelsea with big eyes, thinking: "What a club", you know?

'I think we can do amazing things with what we have here. We have really good players – young players – who are really talented. It’s just about putting the work together and all moving in the same direction, and we can achieve a lot of things here.'

Elsewhere, we look at Chelsea’s surprising history with Switzerland, from hosting international matches against them at Stamford Bridge to our second-ever overseas signing, Willi Steffen, who was a Swiss international in the 1940s. Features editor Dominic Bliss takes a look at Steffen’s extraordinary story.

We also revisit Chelsea’s previous UEFA qualifier play-offs, against Skonto Riga and Zilina, and take a look at the club’s extensive history in Europe with an infographic mapping every tie we’ve played across every competition.

Plus, there’s all the opposition info, and the latest from Enzo Maresca, Reece James, Sonia Bompastor, Filipe Coelho and Hassan Sulaiman as we keep you covered across the club’s many teams.

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