Chelsea manager Andre Villas-Boas was denied a victory in his first Premier League match as the Blues were forced to settle for a 0-0 draw against Stoke today.

Villas-Boas's side failed to impress in the first half at the Britannia Stadium, but improved after the interval and the Portuguese coach would have been celebrating a winning start but for three fine saves from Stoke goalkeeper Asmir Begovic.

The 33-year-old became the fourth youngest manager in Premier League history when Blues owner Roman Abramovich made a surprise move to hire him after just one season in charge at Porto.

That lack of experience is a concern for some and, while Stoke were in typically obdurate mood, this was a far from convincing start to Villas-Boas's reign.

With little money spent on new signings so far, his first Chelsea team-sheet contained the same collection of aging stars that lost out to Manchester United in last season's title race.

However, Villas-Boas showed he won't shy away from making big decisions as he selected Fernando Torres ahead of Dider Drogba and the £50 million Spaniard responded to the vote of confidence with one of his more energetic displays.

Torres felt he should have had a penalty at the start of the second half when Ryan Shawcross challenged the forward but referee Mark Halsey was unmoved and the official snubbed another spot-kick claim when Frank Lampard went down too easily under pressure from Marc Wilson.

Chelsea came closest to snatching a winner but Begovic denied John Obi Mikel, then tipped substitute Nicolas Anelka's curling effort onto the crossbar and also saved from Salomon Kalou.