The man is a marvel of muscle and dynamic power but even by his own standards Didier Drogba was extraordinary. Having summoned, somehow, the energy to break Manchester United with a bit of striking so quick and fresh it was more befitting a player who had undergone just 116 seconds of action rather than 116 hard minutes, the juice was still coursing from his batteries after the final whistle. When Jose Mourinho bolted down the tunnel it was Drogba who surged after him, trying to get the manager to come back on the pitch. Mourinho’s capacity for trying to take centre stage, apart from being tiresome, argua-bly disrespects the players who give him so much.

Thankfully, Drogba soon returned to the arena but nothing should have made him leave it and there should have been no theatrics to divert 89,826 pairs of eyes from the striker. Yesterday, new Wembley was his. Shortly before scoring, Drogba had headed narrowly past the post and battered the ball in frustration into the end housing Manchester United’s supporters. He apologised immediately but he was not sorry for battering Sir Alex Ferguson’s men into submission.

When Chelsea went up to collect the FA Cup he paused to clean the trophy on his shirt before thrusting it to the skies. When Chelsea celebrated on the pitch after that it was he who led some merry Russian dancing in honour of Roman Abramovich. Drogba’s dramatics, unlike his manager’s, were thoroughly deserved. It was his right to mark Chelsea’s victory in any way he saw fit because he was the one who had made it. He has been doing it all season, as Ferguson noted in the build up. At times, said Ferguson, Chelsea’s pursuit of United in the Premiership seemed to rest on one single, indomitable will.

At Everton there was a Drogba wonder goal that won Chelsea three points when they looked like leaving with none. Yesterday was his 33rd strike of the season, the highest total for a Chelsea player since Kerry Dixon, and this despite spending most of the campaign without a strike partner or, with Chelsea usually favouring a narrow midfield, wingers to serve him. He did have the latter yesterday although the contibutions of Shaun Wright Phillips and substitute Arjen Robben, were sporadic. Mostly Drogba had to till his furrow alone. His winner was an exemplar of what he has come to perfect, the lone hit-man’s art. First he came deep to pull United’s defenders out of position, then he found Frank Lampard with a gorgeous first touch on the half-volley while turning. Then, darting onto Lampard’s return, he toe-poked a bouncing ball past Van der Sar. Anticipation, creation, execution: a glorious self-made goal.

The 29-year-old Ivorian is African Footballer of the Year, beating Michael Essien and Samuel Eto’o to the accolade. In England he was merely runner up to Cristiano Ronaldo for the PFA and Football Writers’ player of the year awards. Ronaldo probably did enough over the season to deserve to be No 1 but, in yesterday’s head to head, there was absolutley no contest. Ronaldo was stifled by two compatriots, Mourinho with his tactics and Paulo Ferreira with his harrying. As early as the 13th minute, when he buffeted Nemanja Vidic like a Force 10 gale as the defender tried to block his path, it was clear Drogba was going to impose himself on the game.

No Chelsea player got a bigger cheer when lifting the cup but Drogba has not always been beloved. He has by Mourinho, ever since the manager swooned in his arms at the end of a Porto versus Marseille Uefa Cup game and, clasping the striker, announced he would sign him the moment he took charge of his next club - which turned out to be Chelsea. But Drogba has not always been in the hearts of Chelsea supporters, nor the wider football-following public. His first two seasons in England were marked by controversies over diving and unreliable form.

In the summer, when Abramovich lured Andriy Shevchenko to Stamford Bridge, Drogba asked to leave. Mourinho said he could not and, in a piece of man-management the Portuguese fully deserves to bask in, galvanised his man by stressing he was more important to Chelsea’s plans than ever. Drogba turned Shevchenko’s arrival into a source of motivation and made sure he kept his starting place by taking his game to greater heights. His reward was a new £91,000 per week, four-year contract. Silverware, twice, was Mourinho’s reward. Drogba was also Chelsea’s matchwinner in the Carling Cup final.

Mourinho was criticised for playing Route One to his big striker against Liverpool in the Champions League semi-final second leg, but that wasn’t Drogba’s fault. Indeed the problem was created by the striker’s own brilliance: if he had not been so effective versus Daniel Agger in the first leg the tactics might have been different. It is so hard to fathom how this player almost dropped out of football in his early twenties and spent seasons grubbing around the French lower divisions. Here he was to the manor born on Wembley’s stately stage.

Drogba joy

- Chelsea have not lost this season when Didier Drogba has scored. His 33 goals have come in 26, 20 of which Chelsea have won

- Drogba is the fi rst Chelsea player to have scored 30 goals in a season since Kerry Dixon in 1985

- Drogba’s most productive scoring periods have been in the last 15 minutes of the match

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