"Didier Drogba delivered a long and passionate eulogy to the European Cup as Chelsea finally secured their holy grail." The Sun, 21 May 2012

There are some matches that end up seeming primarily the vehicle for one person to somehow attain mythical status. The Champions League final between Chelsea and Bayern was written, it seems now, purely to allow Didier Drogba a form of poetic catharsis worthy of fiction or film.

I know what you're thinking. 1. You don't want to revisit that wretched night in Moscow. 2. You don't want to revisit that wretched night in Moscow. However, we're going to, not just because we have a final coming up in three days and change but also because, dammit, it's time we extinguish this nightmare from the memory once and for all.

It had been almost five months since the last time he struck gold. No longer are we left to wait, and no longer is he left to ponder. Fernando did the business on Sunday, and with style. Hit the jump for details and the like:

The face of relief

Admit it, you exhaled.

Arsenal striker Carlos Vela, currently on loan at Real Sociedad, isn't renowned for his tackling. But having found himself on the receiving end of a trip from a Sporting Gijon player, the Mexican experienced immediate catharsis by being propelled into his own lunge on the linesman. The match official clearly bore no grudge with Vela, [.

To preface, I'm not wholly satisfied with the catharsis I've employed since Saturday. Seems my best efforts to cleanse the memories of what transpired have failed and I'm extremely fucking bitter. I'm usually glass-half-full, but I'd be lying if I said there was anything worth drinking at the moment.

Chelsea 3-5 Arsenal

We've waited a long, long time for that. To my mind, we've not had a result as fine, and as cathartic, since sinking Barcelona in February. (We did beat Utd 1-0 at home, but that was sandwiched between a thoroughly miserable run of form so I'm not going to include that).