‘Fantastic’ Drogba hailed after his farewell

Jose Mourinho described Didier Drogba’s contribution to the title-winning season as “fantastic” after seeing the Chelsea legend make an emotional farewell on his final Blues appearance.

Drogba, 37, announced he would be leaving the club before the final-day victory over Sunderland and the captain for the day played the first 30 minutes despite a knee injury.

The striker, who has scored 164 goals during two spells at Stamford Bridge, was carried from the pitch by his team-mates when he was replaced by Diego Costa and received a rousing send-off from the fans.

“The substitution was decided because he has a little problem on his knee,” Mourinho revealed after the 3-1 win.

“In normal conditions he wouldn’t play but he did because it was the last game and he wanted to be on the pitch.

“We were thinking about changing him in minute 20 or 25, but because he was not so bad and not feeling so much pain we left him for half an hour.

“The captaincy was John’s desire to give him the armband and after that for the players to bring him outside the pitch was between them because they like him a lot.

‘I am really happy because he was part of the other team but he belongs also to the new Chelsea.

“For these players to know him, train with him, play with hime and live with him and share with him is fantastic because he was very good for the young people people like Eden Hazard, Willian and Oscar.

“They learn from the good examples; he made a fantastic contribution.”

And Mourinho was delighted with the victory, which ensured Chelsea avoided a three-game winless run, which would have been their longest sequence without a victory all season,

“The game was good,” Mourinho added. “We didn’t want to celebrate without at least a point so when they scored before us had we had to react.

“The second half was good. It was lower tempo than normal but our quality was good it was nice to see the dynamic back.

“When the players have the cup in their hands it is always a great feeling and it was great for our supporters too.”

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