The 30-million-pound striker has found the back of the net just once since his summer move from AC Milan and squandered two good chances to score in Wednesday's 3-1 Champions League win over Levski Sofia in the Bulgarian capital.

But Mourinho insisted he will not be bounced into dropping a player once feared as the most deadly finisher in European football.

"He needs a goal and I can say -- to stop you asking the question -- that when he is not scoring goals he will always play in the next game," Mourinho said after watching Didier Drogba destroy the Bulgarians with a hattrick.

"Until he scores a goal he is in my line-up. There is no chance of him being dropped. If it's two, three, four or five games he will play. He will play until he scores a goal."

Drogba's treble made him the first Chelsea player to achieve that feat in the Champions League and the English champions will now head into their back-to-back meetings with Barcelona with a maximum six points from two matches already in the bag.

Mourinho however insisted that his side are still some way from their best form, a fact he attributes to the shortage of time he has had to work with his reshaped squad on the training ground.

"We had some improvement last week because we have a clean week to train and we played a good game, especially from a defensive point of view," Mourinho said.

"It was a cool, calm and solid performance but we still need to work more and put the players at the top of their form."

Mourinho added: "It was a night to remember for Didier but the most important thing was that Chelsea go home with three points and are top of the group with six.

"That is five or six consecutive victories for us. We are top of the league in England and top of the group in the Champions League and we are still not playing very very well.

"Didier scoring goals is not so important for me but from a personal point of view it's nice for him."