Anelka: 'Islam helped me live with my Moscow miss'

It wasn't the most passionate display of anguish to follow a famous penalty miss, and it certainly didn't score him favour with the Chelsea fans who had travelled to last season's Champions League final against Manchester United in Moscow. But Nicolas Anelka has now given some insight into the reason for his cool response at seeing Edwin van der Sar save his shoot-out effort: his Muslim faith helps him keep the highs and lows in perspective.

The striker's lack of spontaneous emotion had been construed as evidence he did not really care. After all, he had only been at the club a matter of months after a January move from Bolton for £15m and would probably be on his way shortly.

Yet instead of leaving for another club in the summer, Anelka, 30, has stayed at Chelsea, and with his goals and performances has succeeded in winning over the Stamford Bridge sceptics. The Frenchman travels to Liverpool for tomorrow's Champions League quarter-final first leg as the Premier League's top scorer, focused on making up for his Moscow mishap.

One reason for Anelka's ability to treat success and failure with the same understated equanimity is his devout faith in Islam. The Frenchman publicly converted to the faith in 2004 and took the name Abdul-Salam Bilal, but he has since revealed he had been a Muslim since being a teenager. "It keeps me calmer and more stable on and off the pitch," Anelka said in a magazine interview. "It can help you during difficult times. I often say to myself, about football or otherwise, that things happen for a reason. You can't change things. You have to accept them. Life is full of ups and downs. You're not happy all the time. My religion offers stability and keeps my feet on the ground. It helps me to know who and where I am."

Anelka has never stayed long in one place, having played for nine clubs so far in his career. Surprisingly he admitted that the five-month period he spent on loan at Liverpool seven years ago was the best of his chequered career. He only played 20 league games and scored four goals at Anfield, but he revealed the time holds special memories for him. The role he was given in the team by the then manager Gérard Houllier was his preferred position, supporting a more natural goalscorer. Chelsea manager Guus Hiddink take note.

"I played my best football at Liverpool because I played in my best position during my time there," he said. "There was Michael Owen, who's a natural goalscorer, and Emile Heskey, who sets lots of things up for you. The three of us complemented each other. Owen was the main goalscorer, and you knew he was going to score no matter what, so that allowed me to play my best football.

"I played as a centre-forward at Arsenal and scored lots of goals so everybody thinks that's my best position. But I don't [think so]. For me, football's not about scoring goals. I play because I want to enjoy myself. If I have a chance – great. But my main aim is to play well. If I went through an entire game and then scored in the 85th minute, I wouldn't be happy."

Anelka looks set to share the goalscoring responsibilities with Didier Drogba tomorrow night after the Ivorian came through a training session yesterday, having recovered from an ankle injury that ruled him out of the weekend win over Newcastle. It was Chelsea's seventh win in nine games under Hiddink since he replaced Luiz Felipe Scolari in February and the most fundamental change for Anelka has been a return of self belief, which is itself a shocking indictment of how far things had slipped under Scolari.

"The most important thing is the team and winning trophies at the end of the season," Anelka told Icon magazine. "The change of manager has been good because our results were disappointing and with the new manager now in charge, we've started to believe we can win trophies again."

The penalty miss in Moscow still haunts Anelka, who admitted he will struggle to put the failure out of his mind should Chelsea's Champions League tussle with Liverpool end in penalties.

"I think about it from time to time. And I'm sure I will think of it when I'm next involved in a penalty shoot-out. But I can't change it now. It's sad, but that's life." As the career of this much-travelled striker has shown, he is never happier than when he is moving on.