Encountering Stoke City is a repetitive experience but few learn from it. Chelsea drew at the Britannia Stadium as they did last season, although there was not even a goal apiece in André Villas-Boas’s first competitive fixture. Many of the questions raised by the appointment of the Portuguese remain because this hard-fought contest revealed little about how his side will fare in the more considered matches.

It was always certain that Stoke would operate in their well-drilled manner and show the intense competitiveness that ensure the atmosphere the fans create has a strong sense of pride to it. Time worked in Chelsea’s favour to a degree as measured play started to look feasible once tiredness had set in. Nonetheless Chelsea had a predictability that assisted Tony Pulis’s men.

The evidence here was virtually enough to reactivate speculation about Luka Modric leaving Tottenham Hotspur for Chelsea. Given that Villas-Boas needs that type of individualism so badly, the valuation of the midfielder can only rise. At least there is no reason for a Chelsea fan to despair over the line-up as a whole. It continues to be well-drilled and resolute.

The difficulties could lie with the fashioning of goals. As Frank Lampard edges closer to being reclassified as a veteran it is implausible to suppose that he will roam between penalty areas and regularly drill shots into the net. When Chelsea endure a stalemate, attention turns to Fernando Torres. In view of the £50m fee paid to Liverpool for him in January, curiosity about the Spanish striker and his fortunes will not wane in the near future.

The evidence of a deadlocked match should be mistrusted where he is concerned. Torres was fit and resolute. Chelsea brought on Didier Drogba and Nicolas Anelka but the man who had started at centre-forward could not be taken off while there was realistic hope of victory for Chelsea. Torres was withdrawn only in the 90th minute and, while it made sense to send on a playmaker such as Yossi Benayoun, there was still scant logic in doing so then or at the striker’s expense.

The happiness rests with the hosts. Stoke can be proud that this ground is such a stronghold. Their method is imposed with admirable thoroughness and there are nuances to this method as well, particularly since Matthew Etherington and Jermaine Pennant are on the flanks, but the crowd at this ground relishes the direct approach as if it were a reproach to opponents such as Chelsea, who are supposed to be so rich as to have been cut off from reality.

It was unfortunate that Etherington, who adds finesse to Stoke, did not last the day and had to be substituted because of injury. Villas-Boas might have been bemused even though he knew what to expect. His own side, like many others who come here, found themselves playing a little like Stoke. On the verge of the interval it was largely determination that led to Torres bearing his way into the area, only for him to miskick.

Tony Pulis’s team do not flourish by accident. After a powerful campaign that swept them to the FA Cup final they are in the Europa League qualifiers and seem set to advance further, having already beaten Hajduk Split home and away. Those fixtures were helpful, too, in making them look more ready than Chelsea for the realities of a testing fixture in August.

Stoke’s style works and rests on skills of their own. If Chelsea were largely subdued in the first half, they at least found some rhythm after the break, with Stoke unable to sustain the energy levels on show earlier. There was at least the obvious possibility of a goal. Mikel John Obi had a drive tipped over in the 56th minute but Chelsea felt closer to a goal just before that. Frank Lampard might have had a penalty but did seem to be going down before Marc Wilson challenged. Torres was soon to miskick when Terry headed a Florent Malouda corner to him. It was a match that could never quite find the one sure touch required.

Villas-Boas is under no pressure whatsoever but this afternoon gave him his first piece of substantial evidence to examine. His line-up is sound, with the midfield imposing enough and the defence ready to meet the sort of ordeal that Stoke tried to create for them. The long-throws rained down but Chelsea dealt with them.

In a sense this game has given Villas-Boas a little time. Few sides are allowed to look their best at the Britannia Stadium. It was not a typical Premier League contest and Chelsea will tell themselves that they should be judged by a higher and more sophisticated standard. For Stoke, though, these are just another bunch of visitors given a tough fixture. Pulis and his men will beam over the outcome. There is no such luxury for Chelsea, even if they did share the points.

Premier League 2011-12Stoke CityChelseaPremier LeagueKevin McCarraguardian.co.uk

Persisting with a tired old guard and a refusal to make major changes have left England’s future looking less-than bright

The most hopeful words uttered on England’s behalf came from their youngest player, speaking in the buildup to Saturday’s draw with Switzerland. Jack Wilshere said how much he was looking forward to being joined in England’s midfield by Josh McEachran, Chelsea’s 18-year-old playmaker. Unfortunately for Wilshere, the man next to him as the match kicked off was Frank Lampard, McEachran’s clubmate, now only a couple of weeks away from his 33rd birthday.

England’s long-term prospects are by no means hopeless. The talent exists, as we may see in the European Under-21 Championship finals, which begin in Denmark next weekend. But Fabio Capello, who will leave his job next summer at the latest, has never considered himself to be the curator of the team’s future, and the Italian is not the only England manager to have paid a price for clinging to the obsolescent past, refusing to make the major changes needed since Lampard’s generation returned from Germany five years ago with their reputation in ruins.

In the first half against Switzerland we saw a side being let down by their senior players. The creaking Rio Ferdinand, another 32-year-old, failed to cut out Tranquillo Barnetta’s free-kick, which curled inside the far post, making Joe Hart look stupid. James Milner – only 25, but a veteran in terms of experience – unaccountably moved out of the correctly positioned two-man defensive wall just as Barnetta was striking another free-kick, and could not have done a more effective job of exposing Hart once again had he been wearing the visitors’ red strip.

Meanwhile Lampard was adding nothing more than suet to a pudding of a midfield which struggled so badly throughout the first half that it tarnished the 4-1-4-1 formation with which England were supposed to be consigning the discredited 4-4-2 to the dustbin of history. With Lampard alongside poor Wilshere, England could neither penetrate nor cope with their fast-breaking opponents, and the threadbare nature of the Chelsea man’s performance was starkly exposed by that of Gökhan Inler, Switzerland’s captain, whose control of the central areas is likely to benefit Juventus next season.

And so, unfortunately for modernists, it was only when England reverted to a form of 4-4-2 for the second half that the team came alive. For this, Capello can take credit. The decision to replace Lampard with Ashley Young, playing as a free-ranging second striker behind Darren Bent, brought a measure of zest and direction to a hitherto stodgy performance, along with the goal that saved the team’s face.

Why Young did not start the match, despite having contributed much to March’s win in Cardiff, is a mystery. Capello tried to explain it afterwards by claiming the Aston Villa forward is not a winger, although that was the position in which he performed with distinction against Wales. But if that were so, why did he not take the opportunity to see what Young could do from the start in the role vacated by the suspended Wayne Rooney?

Any manager would prefer to make changes gradually, allowing young players to benefit from the experience of old team-mates while making the transition to senior international football. But the generation of Ferdinand and Lampard has failed so often and, in two World Cups, so spectacularly that it is astonishing to see the survivors still assuming their places in the team as if by right.

Virtually everything that has been good about England during Capello’s time has come from young faces, starting with Rooney and Theo Walcott in Zagreb. But so poorly has the process been handled that now we find ourselves wondering whether Leighton Baines, already 26, has what it takes to become an international player, after the Everton left-back showed flashes of promise when he replaced a limping Ashley Cole on the half-hour, and whether Scott Parker, 30 years old but with so little international mileage on his clock, really is the long-awaited replacement for Owen Hargreaves.

It is hard to envisage posterity regarding the Capello era as anything other than yet another disaster. Unwilling to commit himself to a long-term vision for England, he has been unable to make the short-term fixes with any real success. More than three years after his arrival, the team still have no settled shape. Most bizarrely of all, this Italian coach has not been able to give the team a reliable defence, as we saw from the goals they handed to Switzerland.

He stayed on last summer, even though he would have been happy to go, because the Football Association could not afford the pay-off and he was not going to leave without it. So now, before they can make another really positive step into the future, England must endure another year of performances veering from the mildly encouraging, usually against poor opposition, to the thoroughly dispiriting.

A year ago, having watched England prepare themselves for a World Cup according to his specifications, Capello was disconcerted to see them play without energy. On Saturday night, having told the world that they had trained for the match with the enthusiasm of schoolboys, he was forced into a similar admission. So perhaps there is more to it than just the end of a long season. When players really want to play, they can usually find the energy from somewhere. But between this manager and his squad, there seems to be no exchange of inspiration.

EnglandFrank LampardRio FerdinandFabio CapelloChelseaJack WilshereRichard Williamsguardian.co.uk

• Sir Alex Ferguson set to knock Liverpool off their perch
• United manager looks forward as Carlo Ancelotti waits

It was the day when, to borrow the famous old quote, Sir Alex Ferguson could reflect on knocking Liverpool off their perch. Manchester United’s 2-1 victory over Chelsea leaves them on the brink of overtaking their Merseyside rivals with a record 19th league title and, after almost 25 years in charge, Ferguson could finally proclaim them as “the most successful team in the country in terms of championship victories”.

They now need only one point from their last two games against Blackburn Rovers and Blackpool to confirm the 12th title of Ferguson’s reign. “It’s a fantastic feeling,” the most successful manager in the business said. “If you had said to me at the start of the season that we would need one point from the last two games to be the champions, I would have snapped your hand off.

“We will give them [Blackburn and Blackpool] respect and we won’t under-estimate them because it would be a dangerous thing to do and we’ve come too far for that. But one point … I think we’ll get that, and it’s a fantastic achievement [overtaking Liverpool].

“I would never have believed it could happen, to be honest. But as soon as we got that first one in 1992-93, the door opened to us. Once we got that first title, we have just improved and improved. The club have taken off.”

Javier Hernández opened the scoring inside the first minute and, from that moment, United overwhelmed a disappointing Chelsea side. Ryan Giggs crossed for Nemanja Vidic to head in the second goal after 23 minutes and, though Frank Lampard made it 2-1 from close range midway through the second half, the score barely reflected United’s dominance.

“I thought we were brilliant,” Ferguson continued. “Wayne Rooney could have scored six on his own. I don’t know how many chances we had to score. We got a little bit nervous [after Lampard's goal] because we kept missing all those chances and it gave them a lifeline. We should have been out of sight but that’s the way of Manchester United. We take it to the wire, leave those poor souls in the stands having heart attacks, sitting on the edge of their seats, biting their nails – and I was one of them.”

The defeat leaves Chelsea staring at the near certainty of finishing the season without a trophy and their manager, Carlo Ancelotti, facing an increasingly uncertain future. “It was difficult because we started so badly,” Ancelotti said. “It was very difficult to come back after that first half. The second half was much better but United played better than us and deserved to win. We have to accept this.

“The disappointment is when another team plays better than you. That happened, we have to accept it and we have to accept they were better than us over the season and they have deserved to win the league.”

Asked whether he would remain as manager, the Italian replied: “I don’t know. I hope so but it is not my decision.”

Ferguson, in stark contrast, reiterated that he would still be in charge at Old Trafford next season, regardless of what happens in the Champions League final against Barcelona on 28