DIDIER DROGBA is likely to return for Chelsea when they look to secure their passage from the Champions League group stages on Tuesday night and chief executive Peter Kenyon says he will not be sold in the January transfer window. But with Nicolas Anelka continuing his prolific scoring to lead Chelsea to an eighth successive away league win this season, who is the main man of Stamford Bridge?

Injuries have badly disrupted Drogba’s season, not to mention the suspension incurred for throwing a coin into the crowd during the Carling Cup defeat by Burnley that sidelined him here, but the fact remains he is yet to score a Premier League goal this season.

In his absence Anelka has carried Chelsea’s attack and when it comes to commitment to the cause it is the Frenchman, hardly renowned for such a quality during his nomadic career, who appears to have the edge. While Drogba has been linked with a reunion with Jose Mourinho at Inter Milan, Anelka has got his head down and blossomed.

Drogba at his best may have helped Chelsea avoid potentially costly home defeats by Liverpool and Arsenal and his return will obviously give Luiz Felipe Scolari welcome options but when the Brazilian badly needed a result yesterday after three games without a win and the first murmurings of discontent, Anelka was the one who delivered, to keep Chelsea within a point of leaders Liverpool.

“The spirit in the camp is different class,” said first-team coach Ray Wilkins. “You don’t perform like that if there is dissent in the camp. Where that came from, I don’t know. At this stage of the season we are in a fantastic position and we will get back on track at home.”

Anelka scored 23 goals for Bolton in an 18-month stint at the Reebok stadium before moving to Chelsea in January. When he found the net on his return it was for the ninth time in seven league games, taking his Premier League career tally to 99. The ton would probably have come up in the second half but for an incorrect offside flag but the 29-year-old is still the top flight’s leading scorer, with 15 in all competitions. “If I was a Bolton fan I wouldn’t take it personally because the form he’s in, he would have scored against anybody,” Wilkins said.

Anelka’s pace and ease of movement add a wonderful fluency to Chelsea’s attack, which, augmented by the forward runs of Deco, Frank Lampard and Salomon Kalou, again threw off the shackles away from home and was too much for Bolton to deal with.

Bolton’s plan was to starve the Blues of time and space. Unfortunately for them it didn’t work until the game had gone. “We really needed to be more intense in the first half. Only a few were playing with the tempo we wanted,” said Bolton manager Gary Megson.

Had Kevin Davies scored with a close-range header from Gavin McCann’s early corner Bolton might have harboured hopes of building on a run of four wins in five games but his effort went too high. Within 90 seconds Anelka had swooped to dive and head in a Jose Bosingwa cross after stealing a yard from marker Andy O’Brien.

“I wasn’t surprised, given the opportunity he had. Any centre-forward in the Premier League would have scored that. I was a bit disappointed in the manner it came about,” said Megson.

After five successive wins on this ground Chelsea were never likely to lose after that. A second goal from Deco after 21 minutes, acrobatically volleyed in, guaranteed it. Despite some concerted Bolton pressure in the second half, Chelsea should have added to their lead on the break through Deco, Lampard and Bosingwa.

BOLTON WANDERERS: Jaaskelainen 6, Steinsson 6, Cahill 6, A O’Brien 5, Samuel 5 (Smolarek 80min), Davies 5, Muamba 6 (Gardner h-t, 5), McCann 6, Nolan 6, Taylor 5, Elmander 5

CHELSEA: Cech 5, Bosingwa 7 (Ivanovic 90min), Alex 6, Terry 8, A Cole 7, Mikel 6, Kalou 6 (Ferreira 83min), Lampard 7, Ballack 6, Deco 7, Anelka 8