Manchester: Chelsea’s troubled week ended on a low note on Sunday with manager Avram Grant losing his first game after taking over from Jose Mourinho, 0-2 to fierce rivals Manchester United on Sunday.

A positive result might have softened the blow of Mourinho’s shock departure after three successful years at Chelsea but a first United goal for Carlos Tevez and a late Louis Saha penalty ended those hopes.

Grant, a former Israel national coach, might have felt luck was against him when John Obi Mikel was sent off after 32 minutes.

With 10 men, Chelsea never looked like recovering from Tevez’s headed goal in first half injury-time. For the 2005 and 2006 champions it was the second defeat in three Premier League games and the fourth game in a row without a win.

United have not enjoyed the most fluent of starts to their season either and, despite enjoying the numerical advantage for an hour, they looked to be heading for a fifth successive 1-0 victory from a less than convincing performance until Saha added the second goal.

But in such a highly-charged game, manager Alex Ferguson will take satisfaction from the result and the fact that Tevez finally got on the scoresheet in his sixth Premier League start.

The Argentina international has yet to reproduce the form he showed for West Ham United last season but displayed sharp reactions to get to a lovely cross from Ryan Giggs ahead of goalkeeper Petr Cech.

United had threatened sporadically in the first half with Cech making a brilliant save to keep out a curling short from Wayne Rooney. Cech also saved from Tevez and Giggs volleyed over from a tight angle before Chelsea were rocked by Mikel’s dismissal.

Chelsea coach Avram Grant said referee Mike Dean had made three bad decisions in their 2-0 defeat at Manchester United and described that as “strange.”

Chelsea have lodged an appeal for wrongful dismissal after Dean sent off midfielder John Obi Mikel 32 minutes into the game for a foul on Patrice Evra.