Beckham received a rapturous reception at the sold-out 27,000-seat Home Depot Center in Carson, California as he replaced Galaxy striker Alan Gordon and took up a place in central midfield.

His appearance brought to an end a week of speculation surrounding his fitness following an ankle injury that had prevented him from training with his new team-mates since he arrived in Los Angeles nine days ago.

"It was nice to get out there and kick a soccer ball again," Beckham said. "I hadn't trained all week and the first time I kicked a ball was today.

"It was nice to be out there with the lads and to get this game over and done with. I've enjoyed it."

Beckham also praised his Galaxy team-mates for their effort against Jose Mourinho's side.

"It was a good performance, because when you play against a team the quality of Chelsea where every player is comfortable on the ball, every player wants the ball and is capable of doing something in the game.

"We kept them to 1-0 and we had chances as well."

Mourinho said he was pleased to have notched a third win in three games at the start of Chelsea's pre-season campaign and also for the Galaxy's star debutant.

The Chelsea boss said: "It was a good game for Beckham because people in the US saw that he could pass two, three, 40 metres, that his right foot has highs and it was also very good because they gave a difficult match to a team like Chelsea.

"So it was a nice day for him and for us too. I'm happy. We came here and won three matches, against a Mexican team, a Korean team and an American team, so different cultures of football. Now we go to Europe and will play Rangers, Feyenoord, Brondby, so I think we've prepared our pre-season well."

Both Mourinho and Beckham said they had no problem with an injury-time challenge on the former England captain by Chelsea substitute Steve Sidwell that brought the Galaxy star down and left him hobbling for a short time afterwards.

Mourinho said: "The ball with Sidwell I can understand. It was with a kid who has just arrived at the club, he wanted to show me a lot and that I can understand. If it was with Lampard there would probably have not been contact."

Beckham added: "I saw him coming and I jumped just in time, so my foot wasn't actually planted when he hit me.

"I got up and you expect that in games. He's a competitive player, it's going to be his first start of the season, he's a good player, he's done well in the Premiership so far and now he's playing for a club like Chelsea so he's going to want to smash some people along the way, even if it's in a friendly. Unfortunately it was me tonight but that's fine. That's part and parcel of being a footballer."