It might be some time before the Premier League sees another striker like Didier Drogba.

Romelu Lukaku was once viewed as the next Drogba but the Manchester United striker has proven this season that he isn’t as clinical in front of goal as the Ivorian striker was.

Drogba scored 164 goals in total for Chelsea, across two spells. He is considered by many defenders to be the toughest opponent they’ve come up against.

Of all the incredible strikers that Carles Puyol played against for Barcelona and Spain, he named Drogba as the best.

And Nemanja Vidic said he hated playing against Drogba more than Fernando Torres, despite the Spaniard famously making a mockery of him.

“Drogba was tougher. Torres always created a chance to score, but Drogba was on you for the full game,” Vidic told FourFourTwo in 2016.

“People say: ‘You had a difficult game against Torres’, but it was just the one game.”

“Drogba was physically the hardest; [Luis] Suarez and [Sergio] Aguero were the best.”

What Drogba said about Torres in 2012

Drogba’s farewell in 2012 was an emotional one but the player believed that Chelsea already had his replacement in the form of Torres.

Torres arrived a year earlier from Liverpool and failed to light up Stamford Bridge, scoring just eight league goals in the 2011-12 season.

But Drogba was confident that the Spaniard could step into his boots in a show of support that now looks rather silly.

“Everybody knows Fernando is a very good player, an international player," Drogba said.

"He's been through difficult moments here. It happens to everyone. The good thing is he has our support.

"He always had and I know next season he's going to improve; he's going to be better.

“Chelsea are in good hands with Fernando. Of course we will need new strikers but Torres will do the job, he will do it. He will do it, no doubt."

About that. Torres netted just 45 goals in 172 appearances; he certainly wasn’t the solution.

In fact, Chelsea saw fit to bring Drogba back and send Torres out on loan in the summer of 2014 in perhaps the ultimate show of no-confidence.

And that was the last Chelsea would see of Torres; he would leave on a permanent deal in 2016.