Grant's well set for life after Drogba

Going, going, but not quite gone, Drogba is being touted by Italy's football press as the playing half of a dream ticket to revive the European champions, bundled out by Arsenal on Tuesday night and heading for their Zimmer years. Friends reunited will be the next banner headline if Milan-watchers are correct in thinking Mourinho is also wanted at the San Siro.

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No sooner had the Rossoneri turned decrepit before our eyes than Milan scouts were supposed to be on planes to London to eye up the mighty but restless Drogba, a centre forward to delight old English eyes but a regular problem for the Stamford Bridge press office's firefighting unit.

Chelsea without their Ivorian barnstormer is an image that eludes the mind's eye. He is the ideal fusion of line-piercing power, poise and pace.

But the theatricality that characterises his behaviour in the contact areas of a now insanely fast game is equally apparent in his constant grumbling. In short, Drogba is one of those rolling stones who can't get no satisfaction, and he may be deluding himself if he thinks he can find peace in Milan.

In an interview with CNN's International World of Sport this week, the club's most prolific striker tried to disavow the tantrum he threw after Mourinho was dismissed.

He protested: "People say that I talk a lot about Chelsea, that I have been bad with Chelsea. Everything I said, people forget. I said that the best thing I had in my career, in my life, was at Chelsea.

"I never won two titles before in my life. I never was top scorer in my life. I never won the FA Cup. This is fantastic. I think people forget this and try to go into difficult things. The change was difficult for us because we were used to someone, you know?"

Very diplomatic. And forgetful.

In the same interview the club's chief executive Peter Kenyon called Drogba's original remarks 'inappropriate' and added pointedly: 'He is committed to Chelsea and there'll be no more comments, there'll be no more discussions about his future until the end of the season and again he needs to focus and we need to focus on picking up points.'

The giveaway there is 'end of the season', which is boardroom code for, 'shut up and play if you want us to be accommodating in the summer'.

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Points, and a Champions League quarter-final place, which Avram Grant pursued last night without Nicolas Anelka, Michael Essien and Shaun Wright-Phillips — all on the bench as the Chelsea manager harnessed Frank Lampard and Michael Ballack in central midfield, ahead of Claude Makelele and behind an attacking trident of Joe Cole, Salomon Kalou and Drogba, who could soon be combining with Kaka and Pato in a Milanese forward line.

Grant's reluctance to unite Drogba and Anelka in a 4-4-2 formation seemed questionable until events rode to his rescue, as they sometimes do in sport.

Olympiacos were lightweights in a heavyweight bout. Six minutes in, Ballack dispatched a Lampard cross with his forehead, and 20 minutes later Ballack returned the favour, smashing a shot at Antonios Nikopolidis in the Olympiacos goal for Lampard to pounce from the rebound.

So the fantasy midfield pairing works, against a consignment of Greek statues, at any rate. Ever since Ballack's expensive arrival tacticians have paired belts and braces in discussions about his compatibility with the indefatigable Lampard. But this was a team set up to grant Ballack a starting place, much to the annoyance, probably, of Essien, who carried the pianos during the German's long absence through injury.

Menace, left and right, from the two midfield marauders will help ameliorate the loss of Drogba, unless Lampard also ends up in a Lake Como home, reunited with Mourinho. It's a big void to fill. Drogba's 16 Champions League goals in 33 appearances are a formidable haul at club football's highest level. His 75 from 129 Chelsea starts suggest an urgent need to replace him with another A-grade assassin.

While Lampard and Ballack took the early garlands, Drogba performed a vital service, peeling left and right, making angled runs, asserting his physical attributes and opening channels for Chelsea's midfielders.

Moments after the interval Kalou joined the scoresheet to raise the hope that English clubs will supply four of the eight quarter-finalists.

Midway through the first half The Big D had managed to hurt himself attempting a balletic leap that brought no actual contact with the ball. Classic Drogba: a flourish followed by a drama. He was fine. And so will Chelsea be if he leaves.