The 28-year-old's treble -- his second in the competition but first for the Blues -- not only pushed Chelsea to the top of Group A -- Barcelona were held to a 1-1 draw by Werder Bremen -- but also once again outshone record 30 million pound signing Andriy Shevchenko.

The Ukrainian superstar was goalless again but he literally sweated blood for Chelsea as a vicious elbow to his face in the first-half left him bloodied.

However despite the victory manager Jose Mourinho was not totally satisfied with all his players.

"We have six points and lead our Champions League group and lead the Premiership, but we still have players with space to improve," said Mourinho.

"When we are winning 3-0 we have to keep a better control of the game. Petr Cech had to make four or five saves."

However Mourinho, who has stoutly defended the out of form Shevchenko, was full of praise for Drogba, who has reacted brilliantly to the signing of the Ukrainian.

"He's scoring goals and he's on fire at the moment. He is scoring in England and in Europe, but he is playing well and not just scoring goals.

"He is very confident and this is a beautiful moment for him."

Chelsea dominated the first-half and could have gone in at the break at least 3-0 up.

However they had only Drogba's goal to their credit the Ivorian star tapping in after Georgi Petkov had pulled off a fantastic save from Nigerian international Jon Obi Mikkel's shot but with the net unguarded Drogba put the ball away.

Drogba had nearly opened Chelsea's account earlier with a more spectacular effort but it hit the crossbar as did German captain Michael Ballack's before him, though, Petkov should be credited with another fantastic save, palming the ball onto the crossbar.

Whether Mourinho was disenchanted with his multi-million pound set of stars or was simply playing one of his mind games he kept the hosts waiting for the second-half kick-off which hardly endeared the visitors to the home spectators.

Drogba, though, quickly took the wind out of Levski's sails as he chested down the ball and saw his weak shot squeeze through the previously impeccable Petkov's body and into the net to take the game away from the Bulgarians.

Drogba's glorious night was completed 17 minutes later when the lanky striker scrambled in a pretty ugly effort but it was enough for his hattrick and was his last touch of the game as he was immediately taken off and replaced by Dutch international striker Arjen Robben.

However it was the Bulgarians who had the final say in terms of goals as Mariyan Ognyanov's long range shot beat Petr Cech but it was far too little too late.