City Take First Piece of Silverware

Chelsea line-up: Cech, Terry (c), Cole, Ivanovic, Luiz, Lampard, Mikel, Ramires, Torres, Mata (Sturridge, 75'), Hazard (Bertrand, 71')
Manchester City line-up: Pantilimon, Kompany (c), Zabaleta, Kolarov, Savic (Clichy, HT), Milner, Y.Toure, De Jong, Tevez (Dzeko, 89'), Aguero, Nasri (Silva, 77')

Manchester City start this season the way they ended the last, coming from behind to win silverware. After going 1-0 down, City overcame 10-man Chelsea 3-2 to take the glory in this season's curtain raiser. With Wembley recovering following yesterday's Olympic final, Villa Park hosted the match and the fans were not disappointed.

The game was feisty throughout and this lead to a rather even first half. Carlos Tevez forced the first shot in anger which was easily saved by Petr Cech whilst new signing, Eden Hazard, was looking bright down the left for Chelsea to begin with, but he soon realised how tough the Premiership is.

The first of eight yellow cards was brandished after 11-minutes when Stefan Savic was booked for fouling Hazard, the first of many petulant fouls throughout the match. City did begin to create a few more chances than Chelsea but nothing to really panic Cech and his defence. Hazard's most notable moment of the match may well end up being an attempted back heel that caused him to fall flat on his face.

With the game seemingly to remain a stalemate as the half-time whistle approached, Chelsea found the key to unlock the three man City defence. Ramires made a great run before playing a ball into Fernando Torres' path and the Spaniard made no mistake, opening his account already for the season, five minutes before the break.

But, just two minutes later, the game would become a little more difficult when Branislav Ivanovic went in two-footed on Aleksandr Kolarov. The referee, Kevin Friend, had no choice but to give Ivanovic his first red card in a Chelsea shirt and they would now have to play the second half a man down.

City took full advantage and were level seven minutes after the restart. A James Milner cross was cleared by John Terry, but only as far as Yaya Toure. Toure smashed the ball into the bottom corner, further showing how much of an asset he is to Manchester City.

It was then 2-1 just before the hour mark as City turned the game on its head. Tevez picked up the ball on the edge of the box, made his way into a more central position with the ball before unleashing his effort past Cech. With his recent saga seemingly all sorted, how vital will Tevez be this season for City?

The game then looked to be beyond all doubt on 65-minutes when City made it 3-1. Kolarov made his way down the wing before playing the ball back across goal. Samir Nasri was only too happy to poke the ball past Cech on the volley to seemingly wrap the Community Shield up for them.

But Chelsea did give themselves a chance to comeback when Ryan Bertrand scored his first ever Chelsea goal, 11-minutes from time. The goal came about when Daniel Sturridge's shot was horribly spilled by number two keeper, Costel Pantilimon, Bertrand was the quickest to react and easily made it 3-2. Pantilimon would then keep a hold of the ball with Bertrand trying to wrestle it off him. This farcical exchange resulted in both players earning yellow cards.

The goal would only prove a consolation though as Chelsea couldn't find a third way through the Man City defence. But both teams has shown the rest of the league just what they have to offer as they both bid to win the 2012/2013 Barclay's Premier League.