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Back in the early 2000s when Roman Abramovich acquired Chelsea, nobody could have predicted the trophy haul that the West London club would have later collected.

The Blues quickly became one of the most feared sides in the world of football and their opponents were shaking at the prospect of facing their top stars.

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And it wasn’t just the world of football which changed after Roman got hold of his new toy. The world of sportsbetting was caught completely by surprise by Chelsea’s sudden rise to power and the odds which they gave for their victories started dropping quite quickly after betting operators realized that the Blues were a mean machine which just couldn’t be stopped. Back then, punters knew that backing Chelsea was safer than putting your money in the bank.

In this article we will take a look at the top three players which were the main reason that Chelsea dominated in that period of time. It is quite unfortunate that they have retired now and that football fans can no longer enjoy their magic.

 
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Claude Makelele

When the Frenchman made the move to Chelsea from Real Madrid no one expected him to have the impact that he did. He arrived to Chelsea on the cheap and turned into one of the shrewdest purchases the Chelsea board has ever made.

His success in the midfield of Chelsea was tied closely to Jose Mourinho’s ascendance to the top and his vision of playing with a three man midfield. It was in this three man midfield that Makelele excelled and was so good in the defensive work that he did and the attacking transitions he started that the role that he played was named after him, and what we call today the midfield anchor was then called ‘the Makelele position’.

 
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Frank Lampard

Lampard started as one of Makelele’s two partners in midfield and later went on to be a crucial and indispensible part of all future Chelsea’s midfields which included players such as Ballack, Deco, Essien, Mikel, Ramires and lots of others.

His knack for scoring goals and making his trademark runs from midfield into the opposition box made him the highest goal scoring midfielder in the Premier League by some distance and Chelsea’s top scorer of all time which is a magnificent achievement for a midfielder.

 
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Didier Drogba

Ask a Chelsea fan who is their all time favourite player and they are likely to respond with the name Didier Drogba. The Ivorian was immense in all the matches he played and was particularly devastating towards opposition defenses in the big matches. Arsenal fans still remember him for the 13 extremely important goals he scored against them.

Drogba was also the player who scored the winning penalty in the Champions League final in Munich in 2012 helping Chelsea win the only trophy which was missing from their trophy cabinet up until then.

He was a fans’ favourite, a target man who was exceptionally good with his feet and is rightly lauded as Chelsea’s best striker ever.

The post Top 3 Retired Chelsea Players since Abramovich’s Takeover appeared first on Premier League Heroes.