LONDON: Veteran striker Didier Drogba will still strike fear into defenders when he begins his second spell at Chelsea, manager Jose Mourinho said on Friday.

“The killer instinct is still there,” Mourinho, in an interview with Sky Sports, said of the 36-year-old Ivorian who signed a 12-month contract last month after spells in China and at Turkish club Galatasaray since leaving Stamford Bridge following the Champion League final victory in 2012.

Drogba will give Mourinho a tried and tested formula in attack, where he will be vying for a place with Spanish duo Fernando Torres and new signing Diego Costa.

“He still has the technique to score goals and the physical strength and presence is still the same,” Mourinho, who signed Drogba from Marseilles in 2004, said.

“Mentally he is the same. Every training exercise, his desire to compete and to win is always there.

“He will be an important player for us.” Almost unstoppable at times with his pace, power and strength, Drogba wrote his name into Chelsea folklore during his first spell at the club, scoring 157 goals and helping the club to the Premier League title in 2005, 2006 and 2010.

He also lifted the FA Cup four times and the League Cup twice.

Wenger dismisses Gerrard’s Suarez claims

Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger has hit back at claims by Liverpool captain Steven Gerrard that striker Luis Suarez was “too good” to ever move to the north London outfit.

The Gunners tabled a £40,000,001 ($67.5 million, 50.4 million euros) bid for Suarez a year ago in the mistaken belief it would trigger a release clause in his contract at Anfield.

And the Uruguayan went on to score 31 goals as Liverpool narrowly missed out on the Premier League title before joining Barcelona this summer.

Gerrard claimed that he had advised Suarez, currently banned from all football for four months after biting Italy’s Giorgio Chiellini during a World Cup group game, against joining Arsenal last year.

“I said: ‘Don’t go to Arsenal’,” the Liverpool captain told several British newspapers on Thursday.

“With all due respect to them, I said to him that he was too good for Arsenal.”

But Wenger, who instead signed Real Madrid’s Mesut Ozil for a club-record fee, insisted on Friday no player would deem themselves too good for his side.

“You’re never too good for Arsenal and Steven Gerrard knows that,” he said during a press conference ahead of this weekend’s Emirates Cup, in which Arsenal will host Portuguese champions Benfica and Monaco.

“But I can understand completely that he asked him to stay because he wanted him (Suarez) to play with him and have a chance to win the Premier League. But it didn’t happen, and anyway, Suarez left.”

Malaga snaps up Ochoa

Mexico goalkeeper Guillermo Ochoa, who was one of the outstanding performers at the World Cup in Brazil, has completed a move to Spanish top-flight side Malaga.

A statement on Malaga’s website on Friday read: “Malaga Club de Futbol has reached an agreement to sign one of the best goalkeepers of the recent World Cup in Brazil, Francisco Guillermo Ochoa Magaña.” The 29-year-old has agreed a three-year deal at La Rosaleda and was due to be officially unveiled later on Friday.

Ochoa was a free agent after his contract with French side AC Ajaccio, who were relegated from Ligue 1 last season, expired.

Ochoa had spent three seasons with Ajaccio before surprisingly being chosen as Mexico’s first-choice ‘keeper at the World Cup.

He helped Miguel Herrera’s side reach the last 16, and was outstanding in helping his team hold hosts Brazil to a 0-0 draw during the group stage.