First Blood to Benitez

Having disdained to shake hands with the manager of the Community Shield winners, a very subdued Jose Mourinho (the Special One with the National Service haircut) appeared in a relatively brief post-match interview and attempted to justify the fact that the Premiership Champions and all round moneybags had been comprehensively defeated by a club he had earlier described as less serious rivals than Manchester United and Arsenal. He wasn’t convincing. Anyone who had heard him in America extolling how well Chelsea were training in intense heat would have been reluctant to buy into his theory that they lost at Cardiff’s Millenium Stadium because Liverpool were so much further ahead in their preparation.

The truth is that this was a turgid performance from Chelsea, who were out-thought and outplayed by a Liverpool side which in the first half lacked Gerrard, Bellamy, Xabi Alonso and Hyypia, and massively out-supported by the massed ranks of their loyal fans. All they had to show for their efforts was a superbly taken equaliser on the brink of half-time by Shevchenko, courtesy of an impressive through ball which marked the only worthwhile contribution from Lumpy Lampard, who at one point was lucky to escape with a yellow card after petulantly kicking out at Zenden.

Anyone hoping that Chelsea, fortified by some high profile signings, would signal their pursuit of a third consecutive Premiership title by turning on the style would have been sorely disappointed. There was far too much déjà vu for that. As early as the third minute, Robben crumpled to the ground like some second rate ham actor and looked up hopefully, in search of a cheap penalty. Three minutes later, referee Martin Atkinson rightly booked the unimpressive Ballack, who glared at him in disgust. Eleven minutes after that Essien escaped after pushing Garcia in the face – presumably as Garcia neglected to collapse in mock agony, as Robben had done last season to get Liverpool’s goalkeeper dismissed in similar circumstances. Fifteen minutes after the interval, it was Essien’s turn for histrionics. A tackle from Alonso sent him into the kind of high tariff quadruple roll which will indicate to anyone who knows the game the absence, both of serious injury and any genuine talent for the theatre – but at least he was rewarded when the Liverpool player was yellow carded.

In a second half that was marked by an epidemic of substitutions - including Bridge for Jeremy; Diarra for Robben; Wright-Phillips (a rare sighting) for Drogba; Jon Obi Mikel for Fereira - and a rash of fouls, Chelsea never seemed to aspire to much more than the hope of forcing extra time, something which even Shevchenko could not accomplish.

So Chelsea’s season has begun with defeat and both the manner of that defeat and the obviously depressing effect it has had on their players and their management will boost the confidence of their immediate opponents and their main rivals and perhaps even give hope to every other team in the Premiership. It will be interesting to see how they respond.