King Peter left out

From page 12

◆ before being loaned out to Real Madrid. A superb midfielder.

Kanu — (Eugene Sowah) Kanu believe it? I bet many couldn’t as the young Nigerian striker scored an incredible hat-trick against Chelsea in his first season for the Gunners.

The Nigerian went on to win two English Premier League titles with Arsenal before succeeding in the FA Cup with Portsmouth.

He might not be the striker Drogba was, but he will always be English Premier League fan favourite. Didier Drogba — (Richard Innes) I may be revealing where my loyalties lie with this question, but . . . is this really even a debate?

Yaya Toure won plenty of big games for City single-handedly, Jay-Jay Okocha was so good they named him twice and Mo Salah could yet turn out to be one of the greatest Premier League players of all time, regardless of birthplace.

But come on folks, let’s face it — there is one man standing head and shoulders above the rest on this particular list.

During his time at Chelsea, Didier Drogba was not just a quality centre-forward who scored a lot of goals; for the best part of a decade, he was the key figure in a team which kept winning big trophies.

At his peak, the Ivorian epitomised everything that was good (and often infuriating) about Jose Mourinho’s first great side in England — powerful, ultra effective, fully committed and a complete bloody nightmare to play against.

He scored in four different FA Cup finals.

He scored in a Champions League final and then bagged the decisive penalty in the shoot-out.

He was the talismanic lone striker in the side that won the title with 95 points.

According to John Terry, his presence in The Blues’ line-up would be the sole reason that Chelsea side of the mid-Noughties would beat the current Man City team.

Are we still debating this? — Senior Sports Editor/Daily Mirror.