ROBERTO Di Matteo believes Saturday's FA Cup triumph is proof that there is still plenty of mileage left in his more experienced players.
Chelsea's woes under Andre Villas-Boas fostered the suspicion that the club's golden generation were on their last legs and the former Blues boss seemed to be gradually loosening the club's dependency on them.
But the interim boss says there is no reason why players like Didier Drogba, Frank Lampard cannot keep producing on the biggest stage for many more years.
"If you live a professional life and you train well, you can prolong your career, " Di Matteo said.
"We've got many examples in the last 10 years of players who have played at up to 38 or 40. Obviously, physiologically, it changes a little bit, because your recovery time is a little bit different. But careers are much longer now than 15 years ago."
The Chelsea boss added: "We've had a very difficult season, but there is a lot of quality in this team and experience - and a lot of ambition as well, and in adversity it seems to come out.
"The players just seem to dig deep and we seem to be able to face all the problems people throw at us."
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