MICHAEL BALLACK STROLLS THROUGH the midfield like an emperor. Head held high, tracking back, thrusting forward, casually transferring the ball from left foot to right. He may be a stranger to the Barclays Premiership, but already he is lording it, the master of all that he surveys.
Whether Ballack can complement the similar skills of Frank Lampard, his Chelsea team-mate, is a vexed question. In the Premiership, the team’s authority and dominance is so great that it may not matter. It is in the Champions League, where opponents mark tighter and show less respect for reputations, that the conundrum must be solved.
Tomorrow evening, when Chelsea open their group against Werder Bremen at Stamford Bridge, will provide a first sight of Ballack and Lampard attempting to operate in European harmony. The German, a confident soul, has no fears.
“It is not difficult playing with Frank because he is a great player,” Ballack said after his home debut on Saturday. “We play in midfield together, but in different positions. We can swap sides, left and right, and this is good. Both of us can play on both sides and it is no difference for either of us. I think, also, that that is good for the team.”
Ballack is deceptive. Lampard might appear to run the show, the archetypal “box-to-box” player, but Ballack has the happy knack, too, of arriving at the right place at the right time. He also puts in the hard yards, having covered 13km in the 2-0 win away to Blackburn Rovers last month.
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In the sixth minute against Charlton Athletic on Saturday, Ballack demonstrated that happy knack. Lampard supplied the corner, Ballack’s header was blocked by Brian Hughes and Didier Drogba squeezed in the rebound. It was, as the phrase on the back of a Chelsea supporter’s shirt pertinently observed, “The Drogs Ballacks”.
Next up Bremen. Again, Ballack is the essence of self-assurance. “I know them well from Germany,” the former Bayern Munich player said. “They are the strongest team from the third group of seeds, so it is a big challenge for us. But we are not worried, we are strong.”
Charlton are no Bremen but pugnaciously pushed Chelsea into shifting into a higher gear when equalising through Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink. The former Chelsea striker drilled a low shot past Petr Cech, but declined to celebrate. “I did not want to show any disrespect,” he said.
The home fans even applauded him, although safe in the knowledge that Chelsea would probably respond. That they duly did, when Ricardo Carvalho’s free header, from another Lampard corner, was deflected in by Amdy Faye.
Charlton had been temporarily reduced to ten men, with Souleymane Diawara, the central defender, having left the pitch. It could have been because of hypothermia — he bizarrely chose to wear gloves on a humid afternoon — but it was later revealed as a hamstring strain.
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Whatever Diawara’s ailment, Charlton had not had time to reorganise their defence. “We were debating about who to bring on when the goal went in,” Iain Dowie, the Charlton manager, said. “The marking just went awry.”
Life for Lampard, for club and country, has gone awry, too. His energy has not dipped, but his radar, for passing and shooting, remains on the blink. Especially the latter, with Scott Carson nimbly saving his 84th-minute penalty after Talal El Karkouri had been penalised for the merest shove on Salomon Kalou.
It was Lampard’s third miss from the spot in four attempts, although José Mourinho, the Chelsea manager, is unconcerned. “Frank doesn’t need sympathy,” he said. “In my opinion, he is playing well for Chelsea. You can give him stick, but I am more than happy with him.”
Ballack generously offered to share Lampard’s burden. “Maybe I will take the next penalty,” he said. “I’m not a player to always take every free kick or penalty and Frank took the penalties last season. Maybe, in future, we will take it in turns. We will have to wait and see.”
In the match programme, Chelsea had another dig at William Gallas after his exit for Arsenal. On the pitch, Ashley Cole eased into his new career with half an hour as a substitute. He was skinned twice by Dennis Rommedahl, but did deliver a couple of decent crosses. In time, he should be lording it like Ballack.