Edwin van der Sar was Manchester United's hero after he saved three penalties to hand first blood to the Reds this season.
The Dutch keeper denied Claudio Pizarro, Frank Lampard and Shaun Wright-Phillips as United sealed The FA Community Shield, sponsored by McDonald's, after a shoot-out following a 1-1 draw at full-time.
Rio Ferdinand and Michael Carrick fired past Petr Cech to leave Wayne Rooney the task of scoring the winning penalty which he duly did.
On a scorching afternoon when a glass of Pimm’s in the garden was more enticing than charging around a football field, Jose Mourinho surprised the sweating crowd by omitting captain John Terry and Didier Drogba from his squad.
Joe Cole was left to plough a lone furrow up front supported by widemen Shaun Wright-Phillips and new boy Florent Malouda.
Sir Alex Ferguson resisted the temptation to bring hand starts to any new signings although his champion side were put under pressure during the opening exchanges as Chelsea dominated possession.
However, for all their slick passing, Chelsea had little to show for it in terms of clear-cut openings and it was United who almost opened the scoring.
Cristiano Ronaldo, excellent despite one stepover which embarrassingly backfired, charged into the box only to be dispossessed by a throng of Chelsea defenders. Fortuitously for the fans decked out in red, the ball ricochted straight to Ryan Giggs but his shot was well saved by the alert Cech.
Carrick then went close a minute later, curling just wide from the edge of the box as Manchester United began to gain the ascendancy.
Chelsea finally responded with a chance of their own. From Malouda’s wide free-kick, Michael Essien flicked on to John Obi Mikel at the far post but the strapping midfielder just failed to nod home.
Boths teams traded chances – Mikael Silvestre almost turning in Ronaldo’s cross and Malouda driving straight at van der Sar – before United took the lead on 35 minutes.
Chelsea appeared to have cleared the danger after hacking away Ronaldo’s free-kick, but Patrice Evra had other ideas. Playing a delightful one-two with his Portuguese team-mate, the Frenchman advanced into the box before squaring the ball to Giggs who planted high into the net.
Chelsea’s opener was equally high in class. After a relatively quiet opening to life with his new club, Malouda latched on to Ashley Cole’s measured ball down the line with the outside of his boot.
Beating Ferdinand to the ball, the Frenchman held off the stumbling defender before carefully guiding the ball the ball into the far corner past the despairing van der Sar.
Only a good save from Cech prevented United retaking the lead four minutes after the restart. The impressive Evra picked out Ronaldo whose clever dummy hoodwinked the Chelsea defence, but not Cech who palmed away the left foot shot.
Ferguson waited until the 67th minute to introduce Luis Nani – United fans will be drooling at the prospect of two Portuguese fliers terrorising opponents – but it was a new boy in blue, Pizarro, who almost made an immediate impact, powerfully drilling just wide from 20 yards.
Chelsea
1 Petr Cech, 2 Glen Johnson (9 Steve Sidwell, 78 mins), 22 Tal Ben Haim, 6 Ricardo Carvalho, 3 Ashley Cole (Lassana Diarra, 67 mins), 5 Michael Essien, 8 Frank Lampard, 12 John Obi Mikel, 24 Shaun Wright-Phillips, 10 Joe Cole (17 Scott Sinclair, 82 mins), 15 Florent Malouda (14 Claudio Pizarro, 51 mins).
Subs not used: 23 Carlo Cudicini, 40 Henrique Hilario, 39 Harry Worley.
Goals: Florent Malouda 45
Manager Jose Mourinho
Bookings Tal Ben Haim, 34, Carvalho 63, Mikel 90+1
Manchester United
1 Edwin van der Sar, 6 Wes Brown, 15 Nemanja Vidic, 5 Rio Ferdinand, 3 Patrice Evra, 7 Cristiano Ronaldo, 16 Michael Carrick, 22 John O’Shea, 27 Mikael Silvestre (17 Luis Nani, 67 mins), 11 Ryan Giggs (24 Darren Fletcher, 81 mins), 10 Wayne Rooney.
Subs not used: 29 Tomasz Kuszczak, 19 Gerard Pique, 26 David Bardsley, 30 Lee Martin, 33 Christopher Eagles.
Goals: Ryan Giggs 35
Manager Sir Alex Ferguson
Bookings Rooney 45+2