Didier Drogba

Didier Drogba has admitted that the revelations surrounding Chelsea captain John Terry’s personal life had a negative impact on the team that nearly led to Carlo Ancelotti’s side conceding the Premier League title to Manchester United.

Chelsea go into the final weekend of the season a point better off than their only rivals for the title and with a relatively straightforward home fixture against Wigan to conclude their season.

With a Wembley FA Cup final meeting with Portsmouth to follow, the London club are favourites to claim their first ever domestic double, though Drogba, in an interview with a French Football magazine, says it could have been quite different.

Terry’s affair with Vanessa Perroncel, the former girlfriend of Wayne Bridge, was exposed by a national newspaper and led to the defender being stripped of the England captaincy.

“It was a key moment in our season because it corresponded with a period where we had lost points, a period where it was less good,” Drogba said. “But we stayed united... It is a period which cost us a lot of points. Here in England, it was enormous. It went from sport to being in the celebrity pages. The cameras were focused on all sorts of things rather than football and we lost our focus, unconsciously, which made us drop points.”