Man U Downs Chelsea in Community Shield

Man of the Match Paul Scholes
(uploaded by gordonflood.com on flickr)

Manchester United beat Chelsea 3-1 in today's Community Shield match at Wembley Stadium. The Reds opened up the scoring in the 41rst minute with a goal from Antonio Valencia. Wayne Rooney, who played the first half, made a brilliant cross to Valencia, who slotted home the first goal of the match.

The second goal came in the 76th minute from Man U's newest member Javier Hernandez (Chicharito). After sneaking behind Ashley Cole, Valencia crossed the ball to Hernandez. The ball deflected off Chicharito's foot and then his face before finding the back of the net.

I think Hernandez was a great signing by Manchester United because of the raw talent he brings to the field. He clearly has goal-scoring ability and I think he could be a valuable sub for Sir Alex Ferguson when he needs more offense. He will have to compete with Michael Owen and Dimitar Berbatov for the second striker behind Wayne Rooney.

Chelsea, who have lost their last four preseason friendlies, did show some life late in the game. Solomon Kalou put home a rebound off a shot from Daniel Sturridge in the 83rd minute. Down only one goal, Chelsea turned on the burners and had chances to net a equaliser but they failed to account for Manchester United's world class counter attack.

Dimitar Berbatov sealed the deal for United in the 90th minute, when he lifted a beautiful chip over the head of Chelsea keeper Henrique Hilario. Berbatov has impressed me in these preseason matches, maybe making a case to start alongside Rooney at some point during the season.

The crowd roared in the 60th minute, when Didier Drogba came into the game as a substitution. Drogba, who lead the premier league in goals last season, did not make a huge impact on the game however. He made a few nifty moves and had one shot hit the side netting, but Man U's interior defense snuffed out most passes heading his way.

Here is United defender Nemanja Vidic on the match (all quotes acquired from soccernet.espn.go.com): "It's important to me," he told Sky Sports. "This is the last game before the season and I think we did well today. Obviously a few players didn't play a lot in pre-season and they had the chance today to build up their fitness and they did well.

"I believe there will be more (trophies). This is just the beginning. I think we have a good squad and we showed we have the energy and we showed some hunger as well and this is very important to be the champions."

Here is man of the match Paul Scholes, who continues to defy logic with his great passing even at age 35: "It was a good game and we're happy with the win. It's more of a pre-season friendly but it's a trophy, we've managed to win it and we're more than happy to do that.

"It's always good to beat Chelsea. They are a quality side who beat us three times last year. That's disappointing but we've got off to the right start this year.

"We weren't that far off last year - just one point in the league. With more determination this year hopefully we can go one step further."

This was an exciting match to watch, even though it's still the preseason. Two quality sides played hard and clearly wanted the victory. The intensity in this match just makes me more excited about what's to come when the premier league kicks off next weekend.