Football story by Boris Webb, Mon, 21 Aug 2006 11:16:00 GMT


LONDON - Reigning Premiership champs Chelsea began their title defense in style with a convincing 3-0 win over Manchester City. In preseason matches Chelsea have performed below par and hence this win was surprising even to their manager Jose Mourinho.

Stamford Bridge faithful were hoping that their new £31 million striker Andriy Shevchenko would blast in a goal in his debut, but it was skipper John Terry, Frank Lampard and Didier Drogba, who cushioned the win for the Blues. Just 11 minutes into the game, Arjen Robben snuck in a fine cross for Terry to head in his second goal in five days. If that was not jolting enough, Lampard made it 2-0 26 minutes into the match. City's woeful start was compounded when Bernado Corradi was sent off in the 63rd minute.

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Drogba finished off the game with a superb diving header on 78 minutes. It was a typical polished performance by Chelsea that will give much heart to their fans as well as to the tem management. The core of the squad remains unchanged and the addition of Shevchenko and Ballack will give them more muscle.

Chelsea boss Jose Mourinho said the comfortable win was surprising, "We played very well, maybe even better than we were expecting," Mourinho said. "I don't think it was a message to other teams because everyone knows the team we were over the last two seasons. It's just a good start at a difficult time with so many injuries and without the time to have a proper pre-season."

His Man City counterpart Stuart Pearce said that he did not read much into their defeat, "As I've said to the players, results at Stamford Bridge and places like that probably won't affect our season," he said. "It's more the results against the teams around us that will affect us. I'm always disappointed when we get beaten, and I've got to learn lessons from this."

Match Summary
Referee: S Bennett (Kent).

Chelsea: Cudicini, Paulo Ferreira, Terry, Ricardo Carvalho, Bridge, Wright-Phillips (Kalou 72), Lampard, Essien, Robben (Diarra 79), Shevchenko, Drogba (Mikel 83).
Goals: Terry 11, Lampard 26, Drogba 78.

Man City: Weaver, Richards, Distin, Dunne, Thatcher, Sinclair, Barton, Dabo (Vassell 57), Reyna (Ireland 72), Corradi, Samaras (Dickov 57).