Chelsea boss Jose Mourinho defended Frank Lampard after advising him to hand penalty duty to Michael Ballack.
Mourinho told Lampard to take a break after missing three of his last four penalties for Chelsea and England. Ballack took over with style, scoring Chelsea's second from the spot in a 2-0 win against Werder Bremen.
Michael Essien had fired the Blues ahead in the 24th minute.
Mourinho said: 'My confidence is 100% in Frank Lampard, no doubt about it, but I told him (if) the next penalty is a crucial penalty at a key point in the game then it's better for another player to take the responsibility.
'But if the next one comes in a position where Lampard is cool he will take it again.
'People remember Lampard missing a penalty against Charlton but I remember him scoring more than 10 penalties for us.
'He has never let us down and I told him he can miss a penalty when the team doesn't need it.'
The Chelsea boss went on to complain that England midfielder Lampard had been given a raw deal by some sections of the media since the World Cup.
Mourinho said: 'For me Lampard is guilty. He is guilty because you never had a player like him in the last 10 years and because of that you are having a go at him.
'He is guilty because he scored so many goals and he played so many matches and he always gives 100% game after game for Chelsea and England.'
'He's guilty because you have not had a player like him in 10 years,' Mourinho retorted angrily.
'I think you should treat him with more respect,'
Mourinho also hit out at the referee's decision to show four yellow cards to his players in the second half and hinted that there may be a conspiracy against his team.
He said: 'The reality is that if you look at Barcelona tonight they had no yellow cards, Bayern Munich had no yellow card, Liverpool had no yellow card, Valencia had no yellow cards, Roma had no yellow cards but Chelsea have four. Do you think it is violence?'
Despite his unhappiness with the referee, Mourinho was pleased to start his European campaign with a win.
The Chelsea boss said: 'The result is fantastic. It is three points against one of our direct opponents for qualification.
'The performance in the first half was very good. We had the game under control but in the second half, until we scored the second goal, we defended too deep and they were better than us.
'But they couldn't score and the penalty came and after that we had the game under control.
'We looked sharper and we could have scored more but that would have been unfair.'
Werder Bremen boss Thomas Schaaf was disappointed but pleased with the way his players performed.
Schaaf said: 'We came here looking for success and we are not satisfied but you cannot afford to make mistakes at this level and we made two which Chelsea used to their advantage.'
CONSPIRACY right at the start - to get as many Chelsea players booked.
This CL is getting very facinating. Liverpool drew, Inter lost. What next for Arsenal without Henry.