Instead Drogba stepped up to the plate and assisted in two of his side's goals and scored the third.
Such is the confidence of the Blues that the home side pierced Fulham's defence after only 50 seconds when midfielder John Obi Mikel passed the ball wide to Florent Malouda.
The French winger slotted the ball to Nicolas Anelka, received it back before finding Drogba on the edge of the visitors penalty area.
The Ivory Coast striker tapped the ball to the onrushing Anelka who slotted home coolly from eight yards out past Mark Schwarzer.
But Chelsea were undone three minutes later when the home side's back four went walkabout and a long ball by Danny Murphy saw Erik Nevland beat the offside trap.
From just inside the Chelsea area he rammed home a low right-footer which Petr Cech could only parry into his far corner of his goal.
But sensationally Chelsea regained the lead three minutes later when Anelka passed to Drogba on the byline. He cut the ball back to an unmarked Malouda who side-footed the ball with his left foot into the top right-hand corner of Fulham's net, giving Schwarzer no chance.
Fulham responded well and Nevland and Bobby Zamora went close to levelling again.
Drobga had the ball in the net again on 20 minutes but was adjudged to have been offside - something TV replays proved not to be the case.
A vicious 20-yard right-footer by Michael Essien on 45 minutes, which went inches wide of the Fulham goal, ended the first-half action.
Chelsea boss Guus Hiddink took off Alex and Essien and replaced them with Branislav Ivanovic and Michael Ballack at half-time.
Within eight minutes of the restart Chelsea had a two-goal margin. Breaking up a Fulham attack, Chelsea, through Lampard, broke away quickly, with the England midfielder sliding the ball wide on the right to Anelka.
The Frenchman raced down the wing before passing the ball forward to Drogba who cut across the Fulham back four. He reached the ball ahead of Schwarzer and took one touch before tucking a smart right-footer under the goalkeeper and into the net.
Lampard almost extended the lead with a crisp free-kick on 49 minutes but Schwarzer did well to tip the 25-yard effort over the bar.
Drogba, Ballack and Jose Bosingwa all went close for Chelsea but the game was dominated by the home side who were more than happy to see out the clock, collect three points and judge the match the ideal warm-up for what might prove to be the match of the season on Wednesday night.