CHELSEA assistant boss Steve Clarke hailed new boy Steve Sidwell as the "best player on the pitch" - but the Blues still lost their unbeaten pre-season record.
Late goals from Nacho Novo and Filip Sebo clinched Rangers' perfect warm-up for Wednesday's Champions League second-round qualifier against FK Zeta.
But Clarke insists Ashley Cole's return from injury - plus roles for summer recruits Sidwell, Tal Ben Haim and Claudio Pizarro - made up for Chelsea's defeat a week before their Community Shield clash against Manchester United.
He said: "Ashley Cole came back after a long time out. It was a good training session for John Terry, who hasn't trained for three days with a broken toe, so for him to get 90 minutes at that tempo and that pace was good.
"Claudio Pizarro coming in, he has only trained with the group four times and had another chance to link up with the players and understand what we want from him and how we play. They are all positives.
"I thought Steve Sidwell was the best player today. I thought he was excellent, a good acquisition for us. He strengthens the squad and gives us other options.
"Tal Ben Haim was excellent in the first half. He made a few mistakes towards the end of the game but that's fatigue. Don't forget, he played in three positions.
"He started the game at centre-back, he played left-back and then we moved him to right-back."
Clarke added: "There were pleasing aspects, although the result was disappointing. We don't like to lose any match but, at this stage of the season, there are other priorities.
"We don't select easy games for pre-season. If we want to win 3-0, 4-0, 5-0, we can go to other places and find easy games.
"We played in Feyenoord on Wednesday night, it's a difficult place to go. Ibrox is a difficult place to play. Now we go to Brondby on Tuesday, another away match and always difficult.
"We are always looking to challenge our players and give them different aspects.
Maybe we will come up against Rangers again in the Champions League so now they have a feel of the place and they understand what it's about."
Clarke admitted Rangers looked livelier, saying: "I think they showed that they are a little more advanced in their pre-season preparations than we are.
Obviously they have a big game on Tuesday night and they look sharp, they look ready for it.
"They finished the game a little stronger than us, they caught us a couple of times on the counter-attack and they looked a bit quicker and sharper towards the end. That's the two various stages of pre-season.
"I thought all round their performance was good. They worked very hard in the first half when we had a lot of possession. Their shape was good.
"They changed their formation a little bit in the second half and brought some good pace into the team and caused us a different problem.
"From that aspect, the fact that they changed systems and we had to change to adapt, it was a good training match."
Novo smashed home off a post on 86 minutes following Chris Burke's surging run.
Then, barely 60 seconds later, Sebo thundered home the clincher, albeit via a big deflection.
That double left Gers buoyed, whereas Chelsea are still below their usual efficiency.
John Terry, fresh from signing a new five-year deal which reportedly makes him England's highest-paid player on £130,000 a week, recovered from a toe injury in time to lead out the Stamford Bridge side at Ibrox.
Summer signings Florent Malouda, Sidwell and Ben Haim were also named in the starting line-up.
Arjen Robben's absence from the squad was the result of a knee injury rather than speculation of an imminent move to Real Madrid for the Dutch winger.
The 11 players named by Walter Smith were identical to the line-up selected by the Rangers manager for Tuesday's friendly against Ajax, suggesting he has now settled on the team likely to begin the new Clydesdale Bank Premier League campaign which gets under way in Inverness a week today.
Before then, Rangers take on Zeta on Tuesday.
Apparently, no-one was willing to take their place in Smith's plans for granted though and Rangers hassled and harried their glamorous visitors from the first whistle.
Jean-Claude Darcheville, the man dubbed 'The Rocket', left Terry in his wake when he exploded down the flank and left the side-netting shuddering from the impact of his right-footed effort.
Sasa Papac then sliced a diagonal ball into the path of Kris Boyd but the move was easily read by Petr Cech, the Chelsea goalkeeper racing off his line to smother before the striker had the chance to pull the trigger.
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'Jose, thanks for Seville' proclaimed a banner among the near-capacity crowd, referencing Mourinho's triumph as Porto manager over Rangers' bitter rivals Celtic in the 2003 UEFA Cup final.
But, on the pitch at least, the love-in was about to come to an end.
A cynical Barry Ferguson foul on Malouda earned the Rangers captain a quiet word in his ear from referee Stuart Dougal, as well as a sneaky push from Didier Drogba. Malouda responded with a scything tackle on Ferguson minutes later.
The former Lyon man then turned his focus back to the football, flighting a cross onto the head of Drogba, whose header flashed across the face of goal and past the upright.
Malouda also tried his luck before the break, his long-range strike whistling past the static Allan McGregor and harmlessly wide.
Half-time prompted a flood of substitutions, Chelsea making four changes and Rangers making six, handing a home debut to former Manchester United and West Ham goalkeeper Roy Carroll.
Ashley Cole came on for his first appearance since an ankle operation in the summer, replacing Glen Johnson early in the second half.
Terry picked up the first booking of the game for tangling with Sebo before the striker, famous for his failings at Rangers last season, somehow managed to mis-kick in front of goal from eight yards after being released by Nacho Novo.
At the other end, Carlos Cuellar was in the right place at the right time to block a point-blank shot from Claudio Pizarro on the line before the new Chelsea recruit tested Carroll with a stinging effort seconds later.
It was Rangers who netted twice as the game raced towards its conclusion. The flashes of brilliance widely expected from Chelsea's superstars failed to illuminate the match as much as the luminous yellow strips they wore.
