Didier Drogba must have been an absolute nightmare to play against in his pomp. Pace, power and precision – in many ways he was the complete striker and he showed it so many times in big games when playing for Chelsea.
And of course, he ALWAYS turned up in matches against Arsenal. In 15 outings against the Gunners in all competitions, the Ivorian powerhouse scored 13 goals and only lost one game against Arsene Wenger’s side.
William Gallas played in the same Premier League title-winning side as Drogba and then had the difficult task of trying to thwart him once he’d moved to the North London.
But the Frenchman has revealed his centre-half partner Philippe Senderos was genuinely frightened to death about the prospect of coming up against him – getting himself all worked up before games against Chelsea.
“I knew Philippe Senderos, before a match he would need to speak a lot, you could see that he was sweating, that he did not feel good,” Gallas told RMC in a revealing interview.
“Especially against certain players. I saw him against Chelsea, against Didier Drogba, where he would genuinely panic, like he was going through his match before playing it.
“And unfortunately, when you saw him on the pitch, he lost his playing abilities, he didn’t play well. But against his own team-mates, he played better.”
The Swiss man made over 100 appearances after arriving in 2003 but things never really worked out.
He was loaned out to AC Milan and Everton respectively and left for Fulham in 2010 – before turning out for Valencia, Aston Villa, Grasshopper, Rangers and MLS side Houston Dynamo, his current employers.
sportbible.com
