Chelsea capitalise on Keane's folly

It may have raised almost as much money for good causes as the combatants' combined weekly wage bill (about £660,000), but there was nothing else about yesterday's Charity Shield which was charitable.

It may have raised almost as much money for good causes as the combatants' combined weekly wage bill (about £660,000), but there was nothing else about yesterday's Charity Shield which was charitable.

A stormy contest which betrayed the enmity between these two teams - and their probable roles as title rivals - reached its apex when Roy Keane was sent off for an appalling tackle on Gus Poyet which could have ended the Uruguayan's season before it had begun.

Keane's 62nd-minute stamp on the back of Poyet's leg was in part motivated by the simmering anger he felt after a similarly reckless foul on him by Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink, Chelsea's otherwise impressive debutant. That went unpunished, as had several other incidents, including an earlier fracas between Keane and Poyet, as Mike Riley, the referee, misread the mood, allowing the match to spiral out of control until he was forced to dismiss Keane.

"Roy will be disappointed in himself but the ref took far too long to act," Sir Alex Ferguson, the Manchester United manager, said. "No matter that it is the Charity Shield, these are two top sides and you must have control. It was never nasty but it was competitive and both sides should have had yellow cards beforehand."

Poyet, who has suffered twoserious injuries in his Chelseacareer, was, said Gianluca Vialli, "not happy with the challenge". However, the diplomatic Chelsea manager added: "Like all United players Keane is a winner. He cares. Sometimes players like that do something the ref does not like."

It was Keane's seventh dismissal in seven seasons at Old Trafford and he became the first player sent off in a Charity Shield since Billy Bremner and Kevin Keegan departed, shirtless, in the autumn of 1974. The Irishman will miss three Premiership matches, probably the September home games with Bradford City and Sunderland and the trip to Goodison Park before returning on 23 September - when Chelsea visit Old Trafford.

That will be even more intensely disputed than this match which, until Keane's dismissal, was progressing nicely for United. True, they were already 1-0 down, to Hasselbaink's 22nd-minute opener, and went on to concede a second to Mario Melchiot, but defeat merely maintained the champions' successful pattern of the last two seasons in which Charity Shield failure has been followed by Premiership success.

Omens apart, the last club match and last Charity Shield at the old Wembley - next year's venue is yet to be decided - was a rewarding afternoon for Chelsea. Two new signings, Hasselbaink and Mario Stanic, started and impressed; another, Eidur Gudjohnsen, was given a run-out; and Graeme Le Saux came off the bench for a welcome return.

Defensively they looked sound,offensively they repeatedly opened up a Manchester United side in which the key players, Keane and David Beckham apart, often seemed to be saving themselves for more meaningful challenges ahead.

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and Teddy Sheringham, with places to play for, were motivated but starved of chances. Solskjaer's snap-shot which went wide after 19 minutes was United's first goal attempt.

Chelsea could have had three by then. After eight minutes Hasselbaink, showing an eye for a pass as well as for goal, fed Stanic, playing on the right, only for the Croatian to shoot wide. Six minutes later the £5.6m signing from Parma headed another good chance wide after Gianfranco Zola had bamboozled Gary Neville. Hasselbaink then brushed aside Mikaël Silvestre but dragged his shot wide.

It began to seem that, for all Vialli's £24m summer investment, this was the same old Chelsea, easy on the eye but aimless in front of goal. Then Hasselbaink won a header from Ronny Johnsen, spun away from the Norwegian and on to Poyet's return and, with the aid of a deflection off Jaap Stam, paid off the first chunk of his £15m fee.

To score so early will be a relief for him and Vialli, who will have painful memories of the way Chris Sutton's long wait for a goal last season drained his previous record signing's confidence. "Jimbo is a goalscorer," said Vialli, "and he could not have had a better start. If a striker scores goals the confidence between him and his team-mates grows."

Paul Scholes, stealing behind Frank Leboeuf, might have levelled before the break and Ed de Goey finally had to make a save from Beckham's 67th minute free-kick but Chelsea looked the more dangerous. Though Hasselbaink now provides a focus they remain threatening in all positions and Melchiot, having been denied by Fabien Barthez after 52 minutes, drifted inside 20 minutes later before scoring with a low shot from his "wrong" left foot.

Ferguson, betraying his own views on the importance of the match, added dismissively: "It was a game we were looking to help produce the sharpness we usually have. We played pretty football but without a cutting edge."

Clarity is expected to begin at home, against Newcastle United at Old Trafford on Sunday.

Chelsea (4-4-2): De Goey; Melchiot, Leboeuf, Desailly, Babayaro; Stanic, Di Matteo (Morris, 69), Wise, Poyet (Le Saux, 76); Hasselbaink, Zola (Gudjohnsen, 73). Substitutes not used: Ambrosetti, Flo, Lambourde, Cudicini (gk).

Manchester United (4-4-2): Barthez; G Neville, Johnsen, Silvestre (Stam, 19), Irwin; Beckham, Keane, Scholes, Giggs (Fortune, 77); Solskjaer (Cole, 69), Sheringham (Yorke, 69). Substitutes not used: Butt, P Neville, Van der Gouw (gk).

Referee: M Riley (Leeds).

Booking: Manchester Utd: Scholes. Sending-off: Keane.

Man of the match: Hasselbaink.