Drogba’s theatre of hate sums up his time at Chelsea

Didier Drogba and righteous indignation make strange bedfellows, but Paul Hayward in the Guardian is quick to draw attention to the Ivorian's volte face after his antics in last year's Champions League final - but suggests that, paradoxically, the striker's meltdown may have won back some of the fans' affection that he threw away a year ago.

"From villain of the piece in Moscow to crusader against injustice at Stamford Bridge is a 12-month journey only Didier Drogba has the necessary chutzpah to undertake," he writes.

"The year is 2008 and Drogba slaps Manchester United's Nemanja Vidic to be sent off in extra-time in a Champions League final. The penalty the Chelsea striker was scheduled to take in the shoot-out falls instead to a defender, John Terry, who misses. The year is 2009 and we go over now at the end of Chelsea-Barcelona to a party political broadcast by the Didier Drogba party. The message: 'It's a disgrace.' Thank you and good night."

He describes Drogba's rant at the Sky TV cameras as a "Premier League star's version of J'Accuse" -  author Emile Zola's famous attack on the French government in the 19th century.

Hayward adds that: "As well as presenting a neat encapsulation of the many contradictions that make up Didier Yves Drogba Tebily, 31, Wednesday night's cabaret of fury may have had the paradoxical effect of shifting the club's resident Trouble Man closer to the hero end of the spectrum for the average Chelsea fan.

"Since his arrival as a £24m acquisition from Marseille in 2005 there have been many Drogba 'moments' that were meant to define his time in England," he adds. This may finally have been it. ·