So it turns out it is one thing to beat teams like Flamengo, ES Tunis, Benfica and Palmeiras in a cash-bloated, glorified set of summer friendlies and call yourselves World Champions.
And it is quite another to come to the home of a European giant like Bayern Munich in the season’s opening round of the Champions League and find out what a proper competition looks like.
It is quite another thing, too, to come up against a striker like Harry Kane in a competition that matters. Kane was at his clinical best against his old adversaries. He scored twice and pulled Chelsea’s defence to pieces. This was very much a reality check for Enzo Maresca and his team.
Chelsea may claim to be the world’s best on the back of their triumph in the Club World Cup but their defeat to Bayern in the Allianz Arena on Wednesday night proved what the rest of us all knew: they are far from that.
It was not that they disgraced themselves. In fact, Cole Palmer looked like one of the best players in the world with a performance, and a goal, that dragged Chelsea back into the game in the first half after they had threatened to implode.
But this was not the exhibition football in which they were involved in the States. This was real. Bayern are now unbeaten in their last 35 home Champions League group stage/league phase games. They have not lost here at this stage since 2013, when their manager, Vincent Kompany was on the bench for Manchester City in a 3-2 win.
Harry Kane netted a brace as Chelsea started their Champions League game with defeat
The England captain pulled Chelsea’s defence apart as they found out what a proper competition looks like
At the start of the night, it had felt as if Chelsea were visiting their happy place when they ran out in front of the 75,000 bouncing, roaring fans in red and white. It is the same when Manchester United play at the Nou Camp or Liverpool visit the stadium in the hills and the dust outside Istanbul.
None of the current players were here on May 19 2012 for the greatest night in Chelsea’s history, when they faced down the might of Bayern Munich on their home turf to win the Champions League for the first time in their history. But plenty of the fans were.
As they took their places high in the Gods at one end of the stadium, the visiting Chelsea supporters gazed down on the goalmouth below them and watched, in their mind’s eye, Didier Drogba, rising to head that famous near-post equaliser two minutes from time. They sang Frank Lampard’s name, and Drogba’s.
They saw him wheeling away after the decisive penalty in the shoot-out, too. They saw Ashley Cole in tears at the final whistle. They saw John Terry, suspended for the game, running out to join the celebrations in his kit. Everything from that astonishing night is imprinted on the brains of Chelsea supporters.
Chelsea are a different club now, of course. They have different owners, a different philosophy, a different coach and a whole set of different players but one thing is a constant: as they kicked off their first game of this year’s competition against the German champions, it is still the trophy they want above all others.
It appears their second game in the competition, against Benfica at Stamford Bridge a week on Tuesday, will reunite them with Jose Mourinho, their greatest manager, so history hung heavily and happily over the beginning of their attempt to win this trophy for the third time. That sense of nostalgia did not last long.
Chelsea should have scored in the seventh minute. Palmer broke down the right, cut inside and played a brilliant pass into the path of Enzo Fernandez, who had made a surging run into the box. Fernandez tried to control the ball, his touch let him down and the chance was gone.
Chelsea soon regretted their profligacy. When Bayern swept the ball out to the right midway through the half, for some reason it was Joao Pedro who went out wide to close down Michael Olise. Olise went past him with ease and fizzed in a cross that Trevoh Chalobah turned into his own net.
Cole Palmer netted for Chelsea to give them hope but they were comfortably second best
Chelsea may claim to be the world’s best after winning the Club World Cup but they are far from that in reality
Chelsea looked as if they might implode. Seven minutes later, Bayern were two up. Kane got the ball with his back to goal and turned smartly in the area. He was too clever for Moises Caicedo, who tried to tackle him but missed the ball and wrestled Kane to the floor.
After a short delay, the referee pointed to the spot. Kane stepped up to take it and sent Robert Sanchez the wrong way. Kane had suggested that playing against fans who love to hate him would be a motivation and this felt like a prophecy coming true.
Kane, who won the first trophy of his career with Bayern when he lifted the Bundesliga trophy last season, has now scored nine goals against Chelsea. His record in the Champions League gives the lie to the idea that he is only succeeding because of the weakness of German football.
Kane, 32, has now started this season with seven goals in four games. His record, in all competitions since he joined the German giants in 2023, now stands at 95 goals in 102 matches.
Instead of collapsing, Chelsea hit back. Palmer, who had been a joy to watch even amid Chelsea’s adversity, set off on a run from his own half and played a one-two with Malo Gusto. He accelerated on to the return and lifted a brilliant first-time shot high into the top corner of Manuel Neuer’s net.
Kane almost restored Bayern’s two-goal advantage 10 minutes into the second half. The England captain ran on to Konrad Laimer’s reverse pass but his fierce left-foot drive cannoned off the shin of Sanchez and away to safety.
Sanchez saved Chelsea again a few minutes later. This time, the goalkeeper produced a quite breathtaking save, flinging himself to his right to save one-handed when Olise thought he was passing the ball into an open goal after Kane’s cut-back.
But Bayern would not be denied. Their pressure forced Malo Gusto into a calamitous error. The full-back stretched to try to rescue a bad touch but only succeeded in poking the ball straight to Kane.
Kane, 25 yards out, turned and saw that Sanchez was out of position, to one side of his goal. Sanchez tried to regain his ground but Kane curled the ball expertly around him and into the bottom corner.
Chelsea tried but they could not make any inroads in Bayern’s lead. It was rather a stark reminder for Maresca and his team that football just got real again.
