Chelsea’s recent winning streak was halted by a 1-1 draw at Wigan Athletic, Jordi Gómez capitalising on a horrible mistake from Petr Čech to equalise two minutes from time.
The Blues were on course for a fourth consecutive Premier League win when Daniel Sturridge collected a long, diagonal ball from Ashley Cole and drilled a shot across Ali Al-Habsi after 59 minutes. Gómez’s late leveller, however, means André Villas-Boas’s third-placed side are six points off the pace ahead of four matches on Sunday, when all of their title rivals are in action.
On Sunday leaders Manchester City host Arsenal, Manchester United, two points further back in second trevel to Queens Park Rangers and Tottenham Hotspur meet Sunderland. Elsewhere, Aston Villa play Liverpool.
Fulham put the disappointment of their dramatic Europa League exit behind them by beating bottom of the table Bolton 2-0 at Craven Cottage. Clint Dempsey scored Fulham’s first while Bryan Ruiz scored the second with a neat chip.
The defeat heaped more pressure on Wanderers boss Owen Coyle. It is a two-man race between Coyle and Blackburn boss Steve Keane to see who gets fired first. Rovers also lost today, losing 2-1 at home to West Brom in a relegation six pointer.
Stoke City are up to 8th after a come from behind 2-1 win at Wolves. Summer signing Peter Crouch got the winner for the Potters, who yesterday found out that they will play perennial Champions League side Valencia in the Europa League.
Elsewhere Newcastle United continued its recent slump with a 0-0 draw at home to Swansea while Everton were held to a 1-1 draw at home by Norwich.