1-1 at full time and lost on penalties. I mean, lost rather poorly on penalties. Bulk of the blame, if any, should go to the penalty takers - Lampard, Pizarro and SWP, especially the latter two. Brave man Pizarro, who chose to take the first penalty but by poorly missing it, he put more pressure on the guys to come. That’s not to take away any credit from van der sar, who was simply outstanding.

I don’t know if I should say Cech could have done better. He’s been such a superb player for us, he has saved us many many times before (even today), but I have to say, he should have done a little better, if not too much. Jose blundered by retaining SWP for all 90 minutes while in my current mood at this moment, if I were Roman, I’d give SWP to Arsenal for free. Drogba, Sheva and Terry could not start due to injuries. Ok, that’s all about the sad part.

Chelsea: Cech, Johnson (Sidwell 78), Carvalho, Ben Haim, Ashley Cole (Diarra 67), Wright-Phillips, Essien, Mikel, Lampard, Malouda (Pizarro 51), Joe Cole (Sinclair 82). Subs Not Used: Cudicini, Hilario, Worley.

Man Utd: Van der Sar, Brown, Vidic, Ferdinand, Evra, Ronaldo, Carrick, O’Shea, Silvestre (Nani 68), Giggs (Fletcher 81), Rooney. Subs Not Used: Kuszczak, Pique, Bardsley, Martin, Eagles.

When the kick off happened, Man Utd started as clear favourites - Ronaldo, Giggs and Rooney, completely fit and ready to fire. In defence, they had Rio, Vidic, Evra and Brown, hardly a compromised line-up. Carrick was in the midfield. Only O’ Shea and Silvestre could have been the weak links. Remember, they had a very ’successful’ pre-season our in Asia where they were thrashing unknown teams at will. Chelsea started with a bold 4-3-3. No strikers up front. To start a competitive match against Man Utd with no strikers was quite cocky. I’m sure Fergie must have been hugely surprised (pleasantly too).

The first half belonged to Man Utd. They were clearly the better team mainly because their attacks had more teeth than ours. As the play progressed, I could feel Chelsea starting to play well as a team. I was surprised to see Mikel start. He was surprisingly poor all through the first half. He was not the same Mikel we saw last season. The season break has brought either lethargy or complacency to his game. The game plan was very clear. We did not try to close down Ronaldo or Rooney. We allowed them to do their stuff and when it mattered, we stole the ball. Ronald still had a good game even by his high standards but a combination of factors prevented him from doing damage.

Just when things were heating slowly, Evra and Ronaldo did a nice move and Evra somehow found Giggs right in the middle of the box. 9 out of 10 times, this ball would have been cleared by the crowded defence. But you have to give credit to Giggs for his fantastic finish. Man, he was surrounded by blue shirts and he slot the ball in the top corner as if it was a practice session or something. Hats off to the legend of the Reds. Wished we had Drogba or Sheva upfront or even Kalou or Pizarro. All through the first half, we did not have players who could effectively challenge Man Utd defenders for the headers. We had one Carvalho fighting with so many heads and that’s where we missed the strikers. There was no one, whose presence could keep Man Utd defence under constant pressure, which could result in defensive errors .

After they scored, Chelsea moved a gear up in terms of controlling the game, not much in the tempo. We were holding the ball waiting for the moment which did arrive when Ashley Cole, like he always does with Drogba, sent a superb lob that was meant for Malouda. And Florent, outran and outmuscled none other than Rio Ferdinand and his left footed finish was pure bliss. I said this in the previous blog too that Malouda is the man to watch and he has fit into the team so well and if this match is any indication, he has fit into the league as well. The other nice thing was that he did not want to go down in the box, he managed to keep his ground and wanted to show Rio who’s the boss.

I loved that goal like anything. More of them, Flo! Malouda could not celebrate his first competitive goal in a blue shirt as he was bundled down as he buried the ball in the net. I was horribly tense to see that, with the injuries to Drogba, Sheva, Robben, Terry running in the back of my mind. Thankfully, he was on his feet little later and he even started the second half.

Malouda Goal: See the chemistry between Ashley Cole and Malouda. Also see when Malouda starts making his run. Look at the space in Man Utd’s right back area and how soon Cole and Malouda sense it together and make it happen. Your Man Utd / Liverpool / Arsenal buddies or the Chelsea-hating news websites would call this boring longball football. Either you can believe them or believe what your eyes see and call this brilliant football, like I do!

If the first half belonged to Man Utd, the second half was painted all blue. We had found our rhythm. SWP, in my eyes, had a very poor match. See, he’s got this gifted skill of dribbling but somehow he produces a zero end product. Today, for all his butterfeet, he got so much service, if it were Robben or Joe Cole or Malouda or even Sinclair on that side instead of him, we would have been home by some margin. Time and time again, he dribbled, beat somebody, made a mess of it and lost the ball or shot at moon. He was always dangerous but never delivered or I lost hope in him delivering a good ball. He was in fact a lot better in the pre-season friendlies. I don’t know if I have this bias against him or he has been really shit. Sinclair played for a few minutes but was shining all through. We should seriously consider providing him more opportunities instead of wasting them with SWP. Pizarro was a bright spot tonight. With him upfront, we can go confidently into a premiership match. He has all the qualities of a good striker and so quickly he has understood the Chelsea game and sensed the moves of his colleagues. If he plays for 90 mins for a few matches, let me tell you, he could be a star!

Essien was not his usual self. That made a big difference to our game. That goes to say how much this Ghanaian influence our midfield performance. Though he improved in the second half, he was no way near his best. Lampard had a forgettable match. I won’t go any further on him. This meant none of our three midfielders were playing well. Thankfully, the back four did rather well. They had their tense moments but came out trumps. Glen Johnson and later on Diarra, did their best to keep Ronaldo in check. Ben Haim looks very promising but something tells me I need to see more of him before concluding on his abilities and promise. This thing called consistency is very important in the game of football and that’s why Boulahrouz started with a bang and now is with Sevilla. Petr Cech made some crucial saves but this was not his best match (even without considering the spot kicks), he was little indecisive in set pieces and distribution.

And then on to the spot kicks. Well, I’ve said all that I wanted to say about spot kicks, in the first couple of paragraphs itself. I don’t want to call Man Utd lucky or something. They thoroughly deserved to win. But we didn’t deserve to lose. That’s it. For all the hype around Man Utd’s blazing form of pre-season friendlies and Chelsea’s pre-season ’struggle’, for all the players both teams were able to play, it is Jose, not Fergie, who should be the happier manager, despite the result. No, this is not sour grapes stuff. Let’s do the reality check. This was community shield match. This was the first day of the competitive season. We did not start with strikers. We lost on penalties. If you had seen that I saw, and if you also could foresee what I could, you should find yourself raring to go for the start of the season.

The mellowed-down Jose Mourinho (little plump looking too) on this match:

I couldn’t be happier with this group of players, a group that was not prepared to play this game and only knew last night they would have to play in this team and with this strategy. I think they did very well. We know our limitations but I think we controlled the game and had our chances to score. I don’t think the boys deserved to lose on penalties but that is football. The season starts really on Saturday, and we have a great group working together.

I don’t want to say we were better, I don’t want to go down that road, but it is fair to say nobody was worse and that gives us confidence for the start of the season. To lose is to lose but to lose on penalties is different from losing in 90 minutes. When you lose in 90 minutes, normally the best team wins. You have to score more goals. Penalties are details. Important details in football because they decide trophies, or which team reaches the next stage of competitions, but just details.

If I analyse the penalty details, I have to say Man United had an outstanding keeper on the penalties. We had three players who all played very well in the 90 minutes but couldn’t score their penalties. If I give my opinion of the 90 minutes, I think Chelsea didn’t deserve to lose because we controlled the game for 90 minutes in quite an easy way, no defensive problems.

Fergie on the match:

It was a difficult game. I think the heat played a part and I don’t think either team is 100 per cent ready. But it was satisfying to win and we can use it as a stepping stone to the big one next week.

Even if the two clubs had played their strongest teams today, I don’t think it would have given you any information other than to say both are contenders for the Premier League title and possibly Arsenal and Liverpool will join in. But we knew that before. The game was not a great gauge as both teams were missing players. It was a very warm day but it will bring players onto the pace required for the first game. I don’t think there was much between the sides.

See, Sir Alex nails it. This match is not a gauge for measuring these teams performance or form or potential for this season. Very very true indeed.

Actually speaking, the consequence of this match mattered very little to me, when I realised that Terry would be out for four weeks. That’s a terrible terrible news. We have Alex and Ben Haim but Terry is Terry. Unsure about when Drogba will be back. We also have Sheva, Robben, Makelele and Kalou in the injury list. Is the curse not over?

I can’t wait for the season to start. If you’re upset that we lost tonight, you have only yourself to blame. Surely there are worse things to worry about than a community shield defeat, oh yes, on penalties. Bring on Birmingham!

Related Links:

The Official Chelsea website report
The Sky Sports report
The BBC Report
The TimesOnline report
Red Rants (Man Utd blog) Report

[tags]Chelsea, Cech, Johnson, Ben Haim, Carvalh, Ashley Cole, Lampard, Mikel, Essien, SWP, Malouda, Joe Cole, Cudicini, Hilario, Pizarro, Diarra, Sidwell, Sinclair, Worley, Manchester United, Man Utd, Jose Mourinho, Alex Ferguson, Community Shield, Wembley, Drogba, Shevchenko, Terry[/tags]