Opta: Didier's top Drog

Didier Drogba is enjoying a fine start to the season, while Andrei Shevchenko struggles.

The summer-signing of Andrei Shevchenko and the penchant of Jose Mourinho to play one striker led many pundits to suggest that the Ivorian forward's days in West London might be numbered, but in fact the arrival of the Ukrainian has simply inspired the burly frontrunner to be better than ever.

In The Premiership and UEFA Champions League so far, Drogba has netted nine goals compared to Shevchenko's solitary strike.

His accuracy and conversion of chances are also far superior so far this campaign.

One odd statistic is that Shevchenko has scored two goals for the Blues so far and they have lost both games - versus Liverpool in the Community Shield and against Middlesbrough in The Premiership.

The competition for places certainly seems to be firing Drogba up and as the table below highlights, he is converting nearly twice as many chances this season than he has managed in his two previous campaigns.

His accuracy and conversion rates were slightly better than the divisional average in previous seasons, but his high price tag was used by his critics to question whether the Blues got value for money.

This season, he is certainly silencing the doubters.