The atmosphere was not palpable.

This, despite the biggest sound and fury that the vast screens and speakers of the cavernous Mercedes-Benz Stadium could muster. Despite the relentless pre-match hype montages, intermittent deluges of FIFA self-congratulation and the blasting of Robbie Williams’ hilariously self-parodic tournament theme song at half-time. Despite even the many Club Leon fans who had turned up in Atlanta without their disqualified Mexican team, just to tell world football’s governing body exactly what they think of them.

In the end, there is only so much you can do with 22,137 spectators in a stadium that can house 50,000 more than that — a jarring disparity that owed something to Chelsea and LAFC’s opening Group D fixture being a mid-afternoon kick-off on a Monday in Atlanta, thousands of miles from both London and Los Angeles, and a lot more to the lack of foresight that FIFA showed in the hasty, hubristic organisation of this competition.

There were tens of thousands of empty seats for Chelsea’s first game of this Club World Cup (Liam Twomey/The Athletic)

Newly crowned European champions Paris Saint-Germain flexing their muscles by dismantling Atletico Madrid in front of a crowd of more than 80,000 in a sweltering Rose Bowl on Sunday felt like the real start of the Club World Cup. The vibe at Mercedes-Benz Stadium yesterday was more Club World Conference League.

The good news is that Chelsea’s almost entirely bloodless run to winning the actual Conference League, UEFA’s third-tier club competition, last month has left them uniquely qualified among the 32 teams in this tournament to navigate such surreal environments, particularly when faced with highly motivated but hopelessly inferior opponents.

LAFC goalkeeper Hugo Lloris, who captained France to win the 2018 World Cup but is now 38 years old, had been disarmingly candid about his team’s chances in the build-up to this game, even considering out loud the possibility that Chelsea might opt to rotate their team with an eye on the second of their three group matches, against Flamengo of Brazil on Friday in Philadelphia (another mid-afternoon kick-off on a work/school day, attendance watchers!), which carries more obvious jeopardy.

Head coach Enzo Maresca, to his credit, did not do that, even to the point of favouring striker Nicolas Jackson’s greater familiarity with his attacking team-mates over handing an immediate start to summer signing Liam Delap.

When the £30million ($40.7m) man was finally introduced in the 63rd minute, he was greeted with the loudest roar of the day, but not before a motivated Jackson had broken the game open — first for Noni Madueke to bring a good save out of Lloris, then for Pedro Neto to score the opening goal just past the half-hour — with his selfless link-up play.

Delap contributed an assist on his Chelsea debut (Shaun Botterill – FIFA/FIFA via Getty Images)

Enzo Fernandez was the only surprising non-starter, and the result of Maresca’s strong selection was a Chelsea performance that was both serious and sloppy. At times, LAFC (Club Leon’s late replacements in the tournament) played around and through their Premier League opponents’ half-speed press with alarming ease, only to be met with more appropriate resistance once they reached the final third. A better team might have done more damage, but this is what group-stage openers are for.

Bayern Munich and PSG embarked upon this tournament in a different mindset, and the similar swagger in their very different first-game victories has cemented their status as the favourites to go on and win this competition next month. Statements of intent carry a psychological power, but they yield the same number of points as the understated handling of business Chelsea carried out in Atlanta.

Maresca broadcast his lack of fear of LAFC, and his level of trust in his own team, by withdrawing club captain Reece James and oft-injured midfielder Romeo Lavia at half-time with the score only 1-0 and the game still theoretically in the balance. Minutes and bodies must be managed ahead of the bigger tests to come and their replacements — particularly in the case of Fernandez, who put the game to bed with a trademark run into the box to convert a Delap cross — were more than capable.

Chelsea briefly toyed with surrendering their lead before Fernandez’s goal on 79 minutes as LAFC abandoned all caution, and might have done so if Robert Sanchez had not exhibited a confident disregard for his club’s pursuit of Milan goalkeeper Mike Maignan earlier this month. But at the other end, there was always a sense that another gear could be reached, even with Cole Palmer continuing to look less than his cool, clear-eyed best within sight of the net.

There was also a reminder that while Maresca may be adamant that his squad is one left-winger short now in the absence of Jadon Sancho, whose loan from Manchester United is over, and Mykhailo Mudryk, provisionally suspended over a positive drug test, it is unlikely to matter in the group stage. Madueke showed against LAFC that he can be just as relied upon to bring his consistent aggression from the left flank as from the right, and substitute Tyrique George looked confident and menacing when given the ball in a more transitional second half.

Madueke played off the left (Rich von Biberstein/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)

Maresca and Chelsea will be well aware that they can get stronger as this competition progresses, in terms of personnel as well as performance.

A mid-tournament window to register new signings that runs from June 27 to July 3 presents yet another Club World Cup quirk, creating the possibility that transfers not done in the mini-window during the first 10 days of the month could still be concluded in time to bolster them for the business end of the tournament.

By then, they might even be playing in front of real crowds.

In the meantime, Chelsea can settle into life at MLS side Philadelphia Union’s training base, with their final two group games over the next eight days both to be played at that city’s Lincoln Financial Field, while many of Europe’s other competing teams rack up the air miles travelling around the United States.

In a tournament that poses so many unprecedented challenges for participating clubs and their key players, that is no small benefit.

An even bigger one might be the time it affords Maresca to address the flaws that are most likely to undo Chelsea’s hopes of a deep Club World Cup run if left unchecked: a press that waxes and wanes, an attack that can become too mechanical, and an oddly subdued Palmer.

Make the most of their long Philadelphia stint and Chelsea could establish themselves as credible contenders, just as the Club World Cup coalesces into a credible competition.

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(Top photo: Michael Regan – FIFA/FIFA via Getty Images)