Chelsea made a record breaking start to their new Premiership campaign by setting a new record of not tasting defeat in 64 home games when they won their first match of the season against Birmingham City on Sunday.

City took a shock lead through Mikael Forssell but goals from Claudio Pizarro and Florent Malouda set the record straight for the home team. A wonder goal from Olivier Kapo leveled the scores before Michael Essien's 25-yard thunderbolt gave Chelsea a perfect start to the new season.

Chelsea started the game with three of their new signings in the starting line up with Steve Sidwell on the bench. Birmingham City went into the match with five new signings in the starting line up and Muamba and de Ridder named on the bench.

In spite of Chelsea dominating the possession, it was Birmingham that carved out the first chance of the match as early as in the 4th minute when Forssell pulled the trigger from the edge of the area, but the ball flew straight to the waiting hands of Cech.

Birmingham got the lead in the 15th minute when Gary McSheffrey's free kick was flicked on by Liam Ridgewell and though he had no time to compose, Forssell's instinctive header flew in to the goal. Chelsea looked to hit back and created some chances, with Shaun Wright-Phillips at the heart of all the attacks.

Chelsea were back on level terms in the 17th minute when Pizarro latched on to a Wright-Phillips' cross from the right and struck the ball towards the target. Even though Doyle managed to get both his hands on the ball, the Birmingham keeper was unable to prevent the goal.

Fourteen minutes later Chelsea took the lead through some brilliant play by Kalou, who flicked the ball through a tiny gap and into the path of Malouda and the 27-year old made no mistake in sliding the ball past Doyle. However Birmingham equalized just 5 minutes later when Kapo raced past Johnson before smashing the ball past an outstretched Cech and into the goal.

Chelsea were looking pretty dangerous and very back in the lead 5 minutes into the second half with Wright-Phillips once again in the thick of things. The 24-year old picked up Essien near the edge of the area and Ghanaian hit a scorching drive to give Chelsea the lead.

Chelsea created a couple of chances in the game with Essien shooting over the ball and Kalou shot saved in style by Doyle. Steve Sidwell had a great chance of scoring the fourth for Chelsea, but his attempt was just wide of the post. With Birmingham unable to muster any response, Chelsea were off to a perfect start in the new season.

Chelsea next face an away trip to Reading on Wednesday followed by the big one against Liverpool on August 18th while Birmingham play Sunderland on Wednesday before welcoming West Ham on Saturday. Watch Premiership live here on free-football.tv.