United 2 - 2 Chelsea (1-4 after penalties)

Foster

O'Shea(Fabio) Ferdinand Evans Evra

Park(Giggs) Carrick Fletcher(Scholes) Nani(Valencia)

Berbatov(Owen) Rooney

So United started the 2009-2010 season on a sour note after losing yet another penalty shootout. Nani, who played quite well, scored a beautiful goal but Chelsea managed to overhaul the one goal defecit by scoring 2 goals. Rooney scored deep in injury time to send the game into penalties which was the third time in a row the Charity Shield ended on penalties.

The thing that really pissed me off was their second goal. Ballack, in front of the ref's eyes, elbowed Evra who was knocked down. Seconds earlier the ref had blown the whistle because he thought that Ballack, who was on the ground, had suffered a serious injury. But the ref didn't blow the whistle this time even though Evra was clutching his face on the ground. Chelsea, who had all the right to play on since that dummy of a ref didn't blow the freakin whistle, didn't put the ball out of play and from the resulting action, Lampard, who made the most of Evra's absence, scored Chelsea's second goal. Rules state that the official must stop play for a head injury and Rio Ferdinand, Wayne Rooney and Evra all protested to Mr.Foy after the goal.

Anyway the game looked destined to finish 2-1 for Chelsea but Rooney scored a good goal after receiving a terrific pass from Giggs. The penalty shootout was a total disaster as Carrick was the only United player to score while Foster didn't even mark a single penalty shot. All in all I'm pretty disappointed United didn't finish Chelsea off when we had some decent chances and another thing that bothered me was Foster's horrific shooting. We'll have to get used to it since VDS is out for about 10 weeks.

On another note I'm pretty pleased another season of football has kicked off. It will be full of ups and downs, mostly ups, I hope and at the end of it I hope we win yet another Premier League trophy! It should be a great season, Chelsea look solid while you can never write neither Arsenal nor Liverpoll off although they both look a tad weaker compared to last season. Man City have built a decent squad while Aston Villa, Everton and Tottenham will all be doing their best to ensure they play European Football next season. The likes of Westham, Portsmouth and Fulham are always a tough nut to crack while the so called 'small' clubs will do anything to avoid relegation. It should be a cracker of a season! Enjoy the ride.

C'Mon United!