Didier Drogba cranks up his goal machinery for European glory

Records tumbled for Chelsea players — Ashley Cole collected his seventh FA Cup winners' medal, John Terry became the first captain to raise the trophy four times — but none were as vital as Didier Drogba's feat in becoming the first player to score in all four of his appearances in the final of this grand old competition.

Little wonder that Frank Lampard described the striker as a "machine". He may have a highly-emotional nature, but place Drogba on the Wembley turf and there is a predictable, machine-like response. He scores. Eight competitive games at Wembley for the 34 year-old have computed in eight goals.

"He is a magnificent player. He's a machine, his body is a machine when you look at him stripped down. He's lost no pace, he's lost none of his finishing instinct," Lampard declared after this FA Cup victory over Liverpool. "He is unique."

Despite that uniqueness, the likelihood is that this will have been Drogba's last appearance in Chelsea colours in this stadium. Certainly the way he bent down and kissed the pitch, the way he cradled the trophy in the six-yard area of the goal in which he scored appeared to be the actions of a man preparing his goodbyes.

Out of contract at the end of next month, Drogba has yet to agree a new deal with the club and despite the assertion of chief executive Ron Gourlay that they are "talking" there is no offer to consider at present and he is likely to leave.

Drogba wants two more years on the same salary he currently commands. Given his age, Chelsea had indicated 12 more months on reduced terms and the Ivorian's chances of staying appear to depend on whether replacements can be attracted or whether he budges. Added to that, he has a highly lucrative offer that he is believed to have provisionally accepted, to follow Nicolas Anelka to China.

Lampard's own future - he has one more year on his contract - also remains in some doubt and both he and Drogba would probably have left had Andre Villas-Boas stayed as manager and pushed through the plans to create a "hungry, young team" (as one Roman Abramovich put it). Whether they stay may depend on who becomes the new permanent manager.

Despite Drogba's accomplishments, his desire has been questioned at times over the past couple of seasons and Abramovich has been keen to alter the way Chelsea play. Fernando Torres, after all, wasn't acquired for £45 million to sit on the bench as he did at Wembley on Saturday and Abramovich's associates have expressed their frustration at Drogba and some of his on-field antics.

Lampard brushed that aside. "I'm desperate for him to stay," he said. "As a man I love Didier and whatever he decides to do, whether he stays or whatever, he has been a hero for this club and will go down as a legend." A legend who, Lampard said, would be impossible to replace even if Chelsea bring in players such as Radamel Falcao, Gonzalo Higuain and Andre Schurrle.

"There is no one like Didier as a player, not with the kind of bulldozer kind of thing he has got and with the sublime touch and finish that he has got," Lampard explained. "It's not easy to find that. But clubs always move on. Eventually everyone has to move on at some stage and you have to find a different player or different way of playing, but for what he has done at this club he deserves -everything.

"He is an absolutely fantastic player. The amount of important goals he has got for us in cup finals and big games throughout his career makes him an icon and historic figure at Chelsea without a doubt.

"He's such a handful. It's been a pleasure to play with him and it would be a pleasure to carry on playing together because he gives defenders such a hard time. He is not just that big man. He scores goals that matter and that's priceless."

His goal on Saturday, which was scored when Liverpool defender Martin Skrtel stood off, for fear of what Drogba could do, summed up his finishing ability but also his presence in big games. He appears to intimidate opponents, commanding respect on the biggest stages. John Terry said it would be "such a shame" if he now left.

For Drogba himself there was an awareness that he had made "history" with his goal and also a desire to fulfil that final ambition: winning the Champions League trophy. Memories of that competition are less rich for him - from his sending off in the final in Moscow in 2008 to his rant into the camera and ban in the wake of the semi-final exit the following year. Now there is another final, in Munich, a week on Saturday which, Drogba said, is "the last one we are chasing, the one we haven't won".

Again he is expected to start ahead of Torres. Does he feel his Chelsea career would be incomplete without winning the Champions League? "It's not finished yet," he said. But he knows this might very well be his last shot as a Chelsea player at the biggest club prize of them all.