Red-hot Rooney finding his form

Wayne Rooney put his World Cup torment behind him to set Manchester United on their way to an impressive 3-1 Community Shield victory over Chelsea at Wembley.

Although Rooney could not get his name on the scoresheet against the double winners, it was the striker who was so out of touch in South Africa who created United's opener with a brilliant cross to set up Antonio Valencia.

New–boy Javier Hernandez marked his competitive debut with an immensely fortuitous second and, although Salomon Kalou pulled one back, Dimitar Berbatov's fine injury–time finish allowed United to collect the trophy for a record 18th time.

The World Cup's legacy will not be the vuvuzela, which was thankfully absent from the showpiece curtain–raiser.

Instead it will be the castigation of high–profile players.

That the reaction should be started by supporters of Manchester United, notoriously antagonistic to all things England, shows the depth of frustration at what went on in Germany this summer.

But while the boos for Ashley Cole could be dismissed as personal, those for John Terry were directly related to the Three Lions' spectacular collapse.

In response, the Chelsea fans singled out Wayne Rooney, goalless and out of sorts in the summer but so full of fire today.

Together with Paul Scholes, Rooney terrorised the Chelsea defence at times during an entertaining opening period in which both sides could have claimed the lead before United eventually did.

Branislav Ivanovic came closest for Chelsea when he climbed above Serbian team–mate Nemanja Vidic to reach Florent Malouda's free–kick and angled a header towards the corner that brought a fine save out of veteran United keeper Edwin van der Sar.

It quickly became apparent Scholes was going to take some stopping. His calmness in possession and the accuracy of his passing mean, even at 35, he is very hard to subdue.

One cleverly disguised pass set Rooney up for a shot that just evaded the far post and Scholes was also the inspiration behind a Michael Owen cross that forced Ivanovic into a hurried clearance.

But it was the brilliant crossfield ball for Rooney, delivered from inside his own half that did the real damage.

Sensing there was little danger as he jogged behind his brother in ignominy, Terry offered Rooney the room with which to execute a perfect first–time cross, drilled right into the heart of Chelsea's penalty area.