Chelsea and Man United 'secret' out as the biggest story in football is revealed

You might think that the ongoing Manchester City fallout or even further reaction to England hammering seven goals past a team that has been to the semi-finals or beyond at two of the last three World Cups might be the biggest story in football this morning, but you'd be dead wrong. Meanwhile, Chelsea and Manchester United's dirty little secret is out.

No wonder Xabi Alonso is so embarrassed. The return of actual Premier League football cannot come soon enough.

Red-faced Always fascinating to Mediawatch to watch the way the Reach titles will cannibalise each other, adapting and adjusting the same content for different audiences. londonstory about Chelsea losing a behind-closed-doors (and this was actual behind-closed-doors, not 'stadium packed with noisy children to the dismay of Lee "Karen" Dixon') friendly against Portsmouth.

Here, clearly writing for a predominantly Chelsea audience, Kieran Horn is very clear - and pretty reasonably so - that the actual result is largely immaterial. Chelsea were beaten 2-0 by Portsmouth in a behind-closed-doors friendly as their preparations ramp up for the return of domestic football.

Xabi Alonso's side took on the Championship club on Saturday at Cobham, with it mainly viewed as a training exercise for the Blues. We'd suggest pretty muchentirelyviewed as such.

A number of senior players are away on international duty, which saw a step up in recovery for several injured players and tactical work as the main aims from the friendly, with the result not the focus, and should therefore not be viewed in the same way as a competitive fixture. Literally impossible to argue with any of that in good faith.

It's even less meaningful than a pre-season game. It's literally just match-adjacent training and preparation for the stragglers and younglings andload-managing first-teamersnot currently on international duty, isn't it?

Yet in the Daily Express, Kieran Horn has a slightly different view. Or, more likely, has been stitched right up.

In the Express, this behind-closed-doors friendly where the result obviously didn't really matter has instead become this. Chelsea lose secret friendly against Championship side as Xabi Alonso red-faced Harsh critics might argue that if you're going to pretend this defeat has left Xabi Alonso red-faced you should put something to that effect in the copy itself, but come on: who reads the copy?