Former Liverpool coach Jacques Crevoisier recommended powerful Ivorian striker Didier Drogba to Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger in 2000, during his days as a Le Mans forward, according to a report in French journal L'Equipe.

Drogba downed the Gunners by recording a deuce on Sunday during Chelsea's convincing 3-0 win over the north London side; it took the 31-year-old's total goal haul against Arsenal to ten strikes from 11 appearances.

It is a far cry from his record at the turn of the decade, when he struggled to find the net for Le Mans, and only returned a modicum tally (five in 21) when he was shuttled to Guingamp.

Drogba recently conceded that, while he decorated the pitches in Ligue 1 prior to his Chelsea days, he - along with a large number of football fans in France - was a supporter of Arsenal due to the French contingent there.

"I like to play against Arsenal because they used to be the team people supported in France because of all the French players there, so I was supporting them as well," he is reported to have said.

Wenger probably got recommended every half-decent player in the french league at one time or another. Not exactly the one that got away

Didier!

not as bad as Fergle turning down Zinedine Zidane in favour of Karel Poborky

Not as bad as Benitez turning down Ronaldo in favour of Babel.



Didn't DDA play as a centrehalf back then?

Still, it accounts for why Wenger was keen to go all Prozone on Dider's arse after the goals. Even though they've since come out and shown he created more chances and touched the ball more than Eduardo and Vela combined. If that's Arsene's definition of "not doing much", I wonder how he evaluated his own forwards.