Chelsea 3, Birmingham City 2: Chelsea charm offensive is up and running

The new Chelsea marketing campaign around Stamford Bridge declares that loyalty to the club is "in the blood" and pictures the players with their veins glowing electric blue. Jose Mourinho's team may well have something unique in their DNA but, when it came to football that quickened the pulse last season, there was greater entertainment to be found elsewhere.

That could be changing. Mourinho spent the summer promising daring raids from the wing and football on the break; against Birmingham City, he traded five goals and a few defensive errors with newcomers from the Championship. This was not Mourinho football as we know it but, for an unusually noisy Stamford Bridge, it was a welcome change from the occasionally charmless progress of the big blue machine.

There were impressive debuts from Claudio Pizarro and Florent Malouda, who both scored, as well as the eye-catching Olivier Kapo for Birmingham. But it was Shaun Wright-Phillips and Salomon Kalou, two free spirits hitherto restrained by Mourinho's tactical rigour, who at last stood out in a team committed to attack.

It is early days yet for Wright-Phillips, who has waited two years for a game like this, but he was crucial to two goals, including Michael Essien's winner on 50 minutes. "Shaun started very well this pre-season," Mourinho said, "and the players know I am honest: I choose the players who deserve to play. The first season coming from a club without ambition is always hard; last season he improved."

Those two years have cost Wright-Phillips a place in England's World Cup squad and just about all the credibility he accumulated at Manchester City – a price most would find hard to bear. But in Kalou and Malouda he found kindred spirits yesterday; the Frenchman looks an immediate crowd favourite: brave, direct and fast.

So too Kapo, 26, a £3m signing from Juventus who has spent two years on loan at Monaco and cracked a thunderous shot past Petr Cech for Birmingham's second goal. It is a measure of the wealth of the Premier League that newly promoted teams are signing Juventus' cast-offs, and this one, Steve Bruce said, was "arguably the best player on the pitch".

Only four sides scored two goals at Stamford Bridge last season, across all domestic competitions, and Birmingham achieved that in the first half. Atrocious marking from Tal Ben Haim allowed Mikael Forssell the chance to nod in Liam Ridgewell's flick from Gary McSheffrey's free-kick – a goal that the former Chelsea striker graciously refused to celebrate.

At stake was Chelsea's run of home league games unbeaten which, with yesterday's result, is now 64 and surpasses Liverpool's record. Mourinho said that he was going to go home "to think about" all the players, past and present, who had helped achieve it. Presumably, he will not be thinking too much about Claudio Ranieri, the predecessor with whom he had an uneasy relationship, who contributed six of those games at the end of his reign.

Mourinho has his own record to think about – he now stands on 99 home league games undefeated as a manager with Porto and Chelsea, although this is a statistic that is yet to be verified independently. It would be a brave man who would challenge him on it and a very unlucky player who found himself responsible for defeat at home to Portsmouth on 25 August.

Within two minutes of Birmingham's goal, Wright-Phillips exchanged passes with Malouda to square the ball for Pizarro to score. The ball dribbled into Colin Doyle's goal rather too easily and the Irish goalkeeper also found himself at fault for Essien's winner. There was not much he could do about Chelsea's second, in which Malouda started a move that involved Frank Lampard and Kalou before he was returned the ball to flick past Doyle.

This was a glimpse of how Chelsea's owner, Roman Abramovich, must have imagined his team playing before Mourinho introduced him to the mundane realities of winning titles. The Russian is back in love with Chelsea, it seems, and he left the stadium with Avram Grant – another indication of how close the new director of football is to the club's power base.

Just when Chelsea looked set to destroy Birmingham, Kapo dragged the visitors back into it, shuffling past Glen Johnson and smashing the ball past Cech for 2-2. It was a glorious finish and it did nothing to further Johnson's case that this second chance at Chelsea will be permanent. Daniel Alves' attacking ability would add another devastating aspect to this team, provided he can defend as well.

The winner from Essien was not struck as savagely as his goal against Arsenal last December, and Doyle allowed it go through his hands. As for the entertainment value, it was, in Mourinho's words, "too much". Those who have sat through some of the more forgettable games of the last three years would disagree.

Goals: Forssell (15) 0-1; Pizarro (17) 1-1; Malouda (30) 2-1; Kapo (36) 2-2; Essien (50) 3-2.

Chelsea (4-4-2): Cech; Johnson, Carvalho, Ben Haim, A Cole; Wright-Phillips, Essien (Mikel, 69), Lampard, Malouda (Sidwell, 82); Kalou, Pizarro (Drogba, 51). Substitutes not used: Cudicini (gk), J Cole.

Birmingham City (4-4-1-1): Doyle; Kelly, Ridgewell, Djourou, Queudrue (Parnaby, 51); Larsson, Nafti (De Ridder, 75), Muamba, McSheffrey (Jerome, 69); Kapo; Forssell. Substitutes not used: Taylor (gk), O'Connor.

Referee: S Bennett (Kent).

Booked: Chelsea Carvalho; Birmingham Larsson.

Man of the match: Wright-Phillips

Attendance: 41,590.