The 2010 Premiership Football Season Kicks-Off

Manchester United First Silverware of the Football Season

The 2010/11 English Premier League football season formally kicked off on Sunday with Manchester United grabbing the first available piece of silverware on offer by beating Chelsea 3-1 at Wembley for the FA Charity Shield. A disappointing result for fans used to Chelsea football gifts of two trophies last season.
The football match started with a fast pace as both sides went out to win. We saw early chances come and go with no goals resulting. Paul Scholes may be getting old but he enjoyed a man of the match performance as he controlled the midfield and continually picked out passes with accuracy and preciseness. Manchester United gifts used the full breadth of the pitch through Antonio Valencia in attack while Chelsea’s Michael Essien and Florent Malouda were largely responsible for(p) for their positive forward moves.

Goals from Ecuadorian Antonio Valencia (41), Mexican Javier Hernandez (76) and Bulgarian Dimitar Berbatov (90) secured the Community Shield for Sir Alex Ferguson's Manchester side, in front of 84,623 fans, with Chelsea getting a consolation goal scored by Ivory Coast forward Salomon Kalou. The Chelsea football score was disappointing.

A lot of substitutions were used throughout the match and Manchester fans got to see Javier ‘Chicharito’ Hernandez make his competitive debut and score a rather unbelievable goal that actually went off his face and in. It is a goal worth watching in slow motion, you don’t often see a goal “faced” in.

It was noticeable that from the beginning of the match large sections of fans from both sides were booing the England players when they touched the ball. The idea of Chelsea and Manchester United fans specifically targeting only England players with booing again brings the club v country debate to the forefront of football.  First it was Ashley Cole, then John Terry, Wayne Rooney and even Fabio Capello as the crowd let the underachieving players who failed to show their England  gifts know exactly how they felt concerning England’s poor World Cup display over the summer. The lackluster effort from the fans in their displays of disapproval were finally washed out by a sort of ‘call and response’ cheering from the opposition fans. When United would boo, Chelsea would cheer. The gesture, although passionate and honest, was a waste of time and had little lasting effect on the game itself as it progressed.  As upset and unforgiving as all of us England fans were after the World Cup, why boo the England players during a club match ? Surely it would be better to wait until England’s next friendly v Hungary this Wednesday, also at Wembley, and let the frustrations out then.