Chelsea 1 Man United 0: To round off the opening weekend of the Premiership season they gave us a seminar instead of spectacle. Only Chelsea supporters could have sat rapt in the Stamford Bridge lecture room.
They appreciated the meticulousness of a side that adopted a defensive stance for most of the afternoon. The team may have won by the same score on the last meeting of these clubs at this ground but everything has changed utterly.
While Claudio Ranieri would consider a fixture wasted if he could not insinuate some eccentricity into it, his successor Jose Mourinho is wedded to practicality. His triumphant Porto side could come up with flourishes in the midst of their conservatism and Chelsea will surely do likewise eventually but the Stamford Bridge project has barely begun.
We might have read the character of this match in dispatches from the Harlington training ground that told of Mourinho's tantrum when he stopped a practice game in which a forward had been left one on one with a defender. The squad must have listened because Manchester United never enjoyed so promising a position here.
If the match was measured by statistics, United, with all their passes and territorial control, would have merited a point. In truth, though, those calculations are tantamount to self-deception.
Can a mis-hit drive by Paul Scholes, a Quinton Fortune cross that zipped through the six-yard box or off-target headers from John O'Shea and Ryan Giggs really be presented as an onslaught? Over the years inviting United to come forward has been a suicidal impulse. Perhaps it will be again, because a full complement of Old Trafford players, with Ruud van Nistelrooy fit and Rio Ferdinand free of supension, would give Alex Ferguson much enhanced means.
There should come a time when they will dispute the claim that they are markedly inferior to Arsenal and Chelsea but until then United must concentrate on keeping themselves in contention. They have to avoid the sort of string of egregious errors that led to the goal yesterday.
Fortune was the first at fault, in the 16th minute, with a miscalculated attempt to keep Chelsea penned in their own box that saw the ball bounce over his head. The left-back had rushed out of position, leaving Geremi to counter-attack.
As Geremi broke on the right, Eidur Gudjohnsen and Didier Drogba made cross runs. An unmarked Drogba, whose height and build made Ferguson's side fretful, was presented with a free header from Geremi's delivery. He angled it downwards and then relished the last of United's flaws in the incident. Tim Howard hesitated in coming to collect the ball and Gudjohnsen nipped it away from the goalkeeper to find the net before Keane could quite reach him.
Rather than bring a spark to the game, the goal led to prolonged firefighting, though it did not seem difficult for Chelsea to extinguish United.
In stoppage-time, with Chelsea able to outnumber United on the break, the substitute Mateja Kezman could have hit the net. Considering that the outspoken Mourinho had informed his players at the interval that they would win 2-0, such a goal would have left the rest of us powerless to dispute this remarkable manager's exalted opinion of himself.
Mourinho, who is really rather engaging when he speaks, does realise how much can go wrong and how easily it can happen. There was, therefore, sympathy from him for United.
Nonetheless, Ferguson will still have been disappointed that his selection, mostly comprising experienced players, could not adapt to the absence of a few stars.
Eric Djemba-Djemba, for example, was bought expressly to supply an alternative in midfield but he is yet to thrive in England and still looks a last resort. There is deeper understanding for Liam Miller. The 23-year-old Corkman was just establishing himself at Celtic when he received the irresistible offer from Ferguson and, in his first start for United, was bemused.
Chelsea, with the introduction of Kezman and Ricardo Carvalho as substitutes, had six men making their debuts. The careers of these individuals are at a far more advanced stage than that of Miller. Men such as Paulo Ferreira and Alexei Smertin conveyed an impression of durability.
The chance of snatching glory is still in the far distance but Mourinho's side is already hard to beat.
CHELSEA: Cech, Paulo Ferreira, Gallas, Terry, Bridge, Geremi (Ricardo Carvalho 89), Makelele, Lampard, Smertin, Drogba (Kezman 70), Gudjohnsen (Parker 82).Subs Not Used: Cudicini, Mutu. Goals: Gudjohnsen 15.
MAN UTD: Howard, Silvestre, Gary Neville, Keane, Fortune (Bellion 84), Miller (Richardson 84), O'Shea, Djemba-Djemba (Forlan 73), Giggs, Scholes, Smith. Subs Not Used: Ricardo, Phil Neville.
Referee: G Poll (Hertfordshire).