'I was spraying champagne on Chelsea fans and nearly fell off the bus – I was holding on like Indiana Jones!' Joe Cole remembers Premier League title celebrations and the story behind iconic Didier Drogba moment

Joe Cole was at the top of his game as one of the earliest signings of Roman Abramovich's Chelsea ownership.

Cole joined the Blues from West Ham United in 2003, a year before Jose Mourinho succeeded Claudio Ranieri as manager and supercharged Chelsea's revolution.

Cole and Mourinho didn't have to wait long to win Chelsea's first title of the Premier League era, finishing 12 points clear of London rivals Arsenal in 2004/05.

Joe Cole on Chelsea's Premier League title celebrations

"We won the Premier League with a victory at Bolton and I nearly fell off the roof of the bus during the celebrations!" Cole tells FourFourTwo.

"I was so giddy, I’d taken the sunroof out so we could climb on top of the bus, I was spraying champagne onto the crowd of Chelsea fans, then I slipped and was literally holding on like Indiana Jones. I thought, ‘I’d better get back inside the bus!’

"Me and Didier Drogba always had a thing during trophy presentations, too – when we won our first trophy together, the Carling Cup, we both ran off with the trophy and the lads went, 'F**king hell, share it out!'

"Then every time we won a trophy after that, we always did the same thing – it became a joke that we always celebrated the most!"

A clip of Drogba running with the Champions League trophy in 2012 is one of the lasting memories of the Blues' European success and was perhaps a nod to the tradition Cole mentioned.

There were plenty of trophies to come. Cole went on to win the Premier League twice more in 2005/06 and 2009/10. Drogba scored the only goal in each of the two FA Cup finals Cole won with the Blues.

In all, Cole and Drogba played 143 times together for Chelsea and won 88 of them, combining for 15 goals in the most successful period of the club's history. Cole then moved to Liverpool in 2010 and returned to West Ham United in 2013 after a loan at Lille.

The England international, who won 56 senior caps and scored at a World Cup, saw out his playing career with Aston Villa, Coventry City and the Tampa Bay Rowdies.

He scored 10 goals in total in a decade-long international career.

Cole is now a well established television pundit, covering matches in the Premier League and FA Cup in England, and European club matches on a regular basis.