Chris Sutton stamped his presence all over the Glasgow derby when he was in his pomp 20 years ago.
The former Chelsea striker thrived off the atmosphere with his chip over Stefan Klos to complete the 2004 Green and Whitewash one of the most celebrated of the 21t century.
Five wins in one season was a pipedream when Celtic signed Sutton but the first time he faced Rangers, up front with Henrik Larsson, turned out to be very memorable- and tasty as the striker explained to the Daily Mail:
My favourite Old Firm memory would have to be the first time I played in this fixture in August 2000. I’d only just signed for Celtic and upon arriving, I said I wanted to ‘put Rangers in their place’.
A few weeks later, I was scoring the first and last goals in a 6-2 win for Celtic — still the best sandwich I’ve ever had.
The psychological trauma that ‘demolition derby’ did to Rangers was delicious. They won the previous season’s Premiership by 21 points, and we went on to take their title.
In the season before Sutton arrived, under John Barnes and Kenny Dalglish, Celtic took one point from four derby matches, signing off with a 4-0 defeat at Ibrox.
With Martin O’Neill setting a new benchmark the hoops took nine points from four matches and knocked Dick Advocaat’s side out of the League Cup in a Hampden semi-final.
There might be no Glasgow Derby debutants in Ange Postecoglou’s starting XI today with the squad undergoing a steep learning curve last season to deliver Celtic’s 10th title in 11 seasons.