Chelsea 4 Portsmouth 0:New Chelsea manager Luis Felipe Scolari oversaw an impressive opening display from his side that consigned Portsmouth to the role spectators and a 4-0 defeat at Stamford Bridge. The damage was done in the first half thanks to goals from Joe Cole, Nicolas Anelka and fan favourite Frank Lampard. A more pedestrian second half followed but Chelsea could have had more than Deco's first goal for the club had they shown a more ruthless streak.

It was a disappointing start to season for Harry Redknapp and his FA Cup champions with few positives to take from the result.

Scolari started Anelka as his lone striker.With Didier Drogba and Andriy Shevchenko sidelined, the France international was alone in front of a five-man midfield, while Portuguese international pairing of Jose Bosingwa and Deco made their competitive debuts.

Younes Kaboul made his first appearance for Pompey, who included former Chelsea players Lassana Diarra and Glen Johnson. Former Liverpool striker Peter Crouch was alongside Jermain Defoe in attack.

As with his Brazil team that won the 2002 World Cup, Scolari relied on his full-backs to create width -instead of Cafu and Roberto Carlos he has Jose Bosingwa and Ashley Cole marauding forward.

It allowed his five-man midfield to dominate through the middle, which is where the opener was created from less than a quarter of an hour into Scolari's career in England.

Anelka cushioned a header back to Michael Ballack, who lifted the ball over Pompey's defence with the outside of his boot for midfielder Cole to steer his finish around David James.

Bosingwa then helped set up Anelka by getting to the byline and standing up a cross to the far post. Ballack almost got in the way as Deco met the ball but the Portugal midfielder managed to clip over James and Anelka beat Sylvain Distin on the line to head into the empty net.

Anelka should have added a third on the half-hour mark but shot narrowly wide.

It did not run entirely smoothly for Scolari as he was forced into a change when Ballack picked up a knock, with Florent Malouda coming on.

Pompey also suggested they were willing to fight back when Petr Cech was forced into a double save before the break, first from Niko Kranjcar's powerful drive, then bravely with his body when Peter Crouch latched onto the rebound.

However, their hopes ended when Chelsea were awarded a penalty in first-half stoppage-time after Distin handled a cross by midfielder Cole.

Lampard tucked away the spot-kick.

The attacking continued after the break, with Anelka twice firing over the crossbar after the restart.

Cole went sent through over the top again but fired wide of the post after outpacing the Pompey defence.

Pompey looked short on belief and were contributing to their own downfall, one free-kick in their own territory resulting in possession lost and a chance being presented to Anelka.

Crouch's partnership with Jermain Defoe clearly needs time to gel. It took them 78 minutes to combine, and Defoe could not get direction on his finish when he met a flick-on.

Deco's goal came in the 89th minute, a powerful and swerving effort from 30 yards that James could only parry into the top corner.

Chelsea: Cech, Bosingwa, Carvalho, Terry, Ashley Cole, Ballack, Lampard, Obi, Deco, Joe Cole, Anelka. Subs: Hilario, Di Santo, Malouda, Bridge, Ferreira, Wright-Phillips, Alex.

Portsmouth: James, Kaboul, Campbell, Distin, Hreidarsson, Johnson, Diarra, Diop, Kranjcar, Defoe, Crouch. Subs: Ashdown, Lauren, Thomas, Utaka, Mvuemba, Cranie, Traore.