Chelsea were denied a victory when the substitute Salomon Kalou raised an arm and handled the ball to concede a penalty converted by Roberto Soldado.

Valencia merited a 1-1 draw that diminished the significance of the night for Chelsea and, in particular, for one senior figure. Frank Lampard had scored the opener, as if to prove his value despite the advancing years. Another old hand, the substitute Nicolas Anelka, might have restored Chelsea’s advantage but was denied by a block from Diego Alves. It had been a tense occasion, with Ashley Cole cautioned for an incident that followed the full-time whistle.

It was an occasion to rekindle memories even if the Mestalla was not quite filled to capacity. The early exchanges were misleading since Chelsea had a briskness that suggested they would gain control. Fernando Torres was put in a promising situation after David Albelda had lost the ball but his control was poor and the centre-half Adil Rami was able to relieve the danger. Some still deemed it a penalty, but Chelsea did not seem concerned by the judgment made by the Italian referee Nicola Rizzoli.

There did seem then to be grounds for patience and optimism even if André Villas-Boas’s team did not look incisive before the interval. Valencia took encouragement and had surges of confidence. Perhaps, too, the players at the La Liga club felt as if they were tapping into a heritage. Valencia were Champions League finalists in both 2000 and 2001.

They continue to have a notable following and the stadium contained a growing sense of anticipation over the course of the first half. In truth, neither the wealth of history or an abundance of fans has stopped them from losing ground on Barcelona and Real Madrid.

Chelsea are also members of the moneyed group and a fixture of this sort often sees an opposing club trying to show that they need not be inferior. The nature of the real relationship between clubs is demonstrated in the marketplace, where these visitors bought Juan Mata for £23.5m in the summer.

Perhaps the visitors thought they could impose their supposedly superior skills in this sort of game. This was just David Luiz’s third outing of the season for Chelsea and while injury accounts for that to some extent there might almost be a sense that he is better suited to the measured sort of fixtures that crop up in the Champions League. Two of the appearances have been in this competition.

Nothing, however, came to fulfilment in the first half. Lampard, for example, struck a free-kick that was well-executed but did not call for an outstanding save by Alves. The La Liga club would hardly have quaked at the prospect of this fixture since Barcelona and Real, even if they now command the scene monotonously, must also ensure that a club such as Valencia will not fade with fright at the prospect of Chelsea.

In view of the expectations, Villas-Boas may have been the manager who felt he had the greater work to do at the interval. Apart from anything else, Chelsea had shown some signs of being pinned down and that meant there were few moments when Ashley Cole and Florent Malouda could take the play to Valencia on that flank. The debate about Frank Lampard’s contribution now that he is 33 might, to his relief, have been regarded as a secondary topic while the side as a whole was unable to impose its will.

The situation was to be transformed, though, during a vehement spell. After 57 minutes Lampard drill Malouda’s low pass from the right into the corner of the net. By then, such a moment had been anticipated. There was too much incident for there to be no consequence.

Villas-Boas had, in particular, coaxed a more insistent authority out of his men.

It was temporarily stalled by the sort of moment that saw Torres denied by the goalkeeper at point-blank range in the 52nd minute.

Regardless of the stream of incident that the match held there was just that one goal. Nerves twanged and when Petr Cech was left stranded on the edge of his area Terry had to deal with a cross from the right.

This was not the sort of contemplative football sometimes encountered in this tournament. Valencia were full of purpose even if it did not seem to be making a sufficient mark.

Chelsea, for their part, did become a little more cautious and the right-back Miguel set up the substitute Pablo Platti for a shot that Cech tipped over the bar.

Chelsea generally protected themselves well but Valencia ensured that the guarding of the 1-0 lead was onerous.

ChelseaValenciaChampions League 2011-12Champions 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