LONDON: Chelsea missed the chance to go six points clear at the top of the Premier League table on Sunday as they could only draw 1-1 at West Ham.
After Manchester United’s 3-0 defeat to Fulham on Saturday, Chelsea could have given themselves breathing space heading into the Christmas program, but the draw leaves them four points clear of United, and six points ahead of Arsenal, who have a game in hand.
They were a little fortunate even to get the draw, their equalizer coming from a dubious penalty converted by Frank Lampard.
Alessandro Diamanti had given West Ham a first-half lead from another penalty.
Since beating Arsenal at the end of November, Chelsea have stuttered badly, winning just one of five games in all competitions.
They seemed well on top in a bitty first half, only Scott Parker on the line denying Branislav Ivanovic the opener after 22 minutes.
They had also had two decent shouts for a penalty - one for a handball by Danny Gabbidon, one for a tug on Salomon Kalou by Julien Faubert — when West Ham were awarded a spot-kick four minutes from the break.
Jack Collison, cutting into the box, cleverly shielded the ball from Ashley Cole, who slid though the back of him and was rightly penalized.
Diamanti drilled the penalty low to Petr Cech’s left as the goalkeeper dived the other way.
Almost immediately Chelsea probably should have had another penalty as goalkeeper Rob Green hesitated in dealing with a high ball, and then seemed to barge Kalou as he nipped in and poked the ball by him. Again, though, referee Mike Dean turned down their appeals.
When he eventually heeded a Chelsea claim, it was after Matthew Upson had seemingly made a clean challenge on Daniel Sturridge.
Lampard was asked to retake the penalty twice as players encroached, but scored with all three efforts.
Chelsea, though, never seized the initiative after that, and West Ham probably should have had another penalty themselves as Ricardo Carvalho barged over Guillermo Franco.
The point keeps West Ham off the bottom, a point clear of Portsmouth.
Birmingham City stretched their unbeaten run to eight matches on Sunday with a 1-1 draw at Everton.
Diniyar Bilyaletdinov put Everton ahead after six minutes, seizing on Louis Saha’s knock-down and running on to smash a finish past Joe Hart.
But Birmingham leveled quarter of an hour later, Christian Benitez teeing up Sebastian Larsson for his fourth goal of the season.
Nenad Milijas and Kevin Doyle got the goals as Wolves beat Burnley 2-0 to climb out of the relegation zone.
Wolves took the lead on the quarter-hour as Doyle robbed Clarke Carlisle and switched the ball inside for Matt Jarvis. When Brian Jensen parried his shot, Milijas was in the right place to knock the ball into an unguarded net.
Doyle was then denied by a fine block from Jensen and he got the goal his performance deserved six minutes after the break, taking down a high ball and holding off Stephen Caldwell before tucking his finish past an exposed Jensen.
The win was a relief for Wolves manager Mick McCarthy, who drew criticism by resting almost his entire first team for the midweek defeat to Manchester United.
“I’m not looking for justification or vindication,” he said. “It’s all about results.
“People’s opinions of my decisions, I’m not bothered with.”
