Late Wigan goal dents Chelsea's title hopes

LONDON: Chelsea's hopes of winning the Premier League took a huge dent at Stamford Bridge on Monday when an injury-time goal from Emile Heskey gave the relegation-threatened visitor a 1-1 draw at Stamford Bridge.

His strike canceled out a 55th-minute goal from Michael Essien that had given Chelsea the lead.

Although it was not playing, Manchester United was the big winner on the night as Heskey's goal left Chelsea five points behind Alex Ferguson's league leader with only four matches to play.

Manchester United has 80 points, Chelsea has 75, with Arsenal, whose manager Arsene Wenger has conceded his side is out of contention, in third place on 71 points after losing at United on Sunday.

The result stunned the Chelsea fans but coach Avram Grant maintained his team would keep battling.

"We'll keep on fighting, but the result didn't help us," he told reporters.

"The second half was one of our best performances of the season. We created a chance every three or four minutes, but that's football and you need to score the second. They scored from one of two chances so it's very disappointing."

Chelsea, which rarely looked like champion-elect and was booed off by its own fans at halftime and at the end of the match, had still looked all set to close the gap on United to three points thanks to Essien's strike.

However, it was punished for not taking its chances when Heskey latched on to a cross from Jason Koumas and lashed the ball past Petr Cech from close range.

Chelsea had been weakened before the start when Frank Lampard pulled out of the team because of personal reasons and it certainly missed his inspirational influence.

Grant explained: "It's a personal matter and I prefer we keep it like this." He also said Didier Drogba, who sat out the match, had a knee problem and needed a scan on the injury.

Second-half scoring

Essien opened the scoring early in the second half within a minute of John Terry hitting Wigan's bar and Salomon Kalou having a point-blank shot saved by Chris Kirkland.

Nicolas Anelka had two good headers in the first half, but they wasted a number of chances after the break with Kirkland making some important stops.

Then Wigan launched one last counter attack with Koumas providing the speculative cross for Heskey to score.

Wigan manager Steve Bruce, who used to play for Manchester United, said friends from his former club had not stopped texting him congratulations.

He added: "The goalkeeper made two or three great saves. That was the plan, to keep them edgy."

The victory moved Wigan on to 35 points, six clear of the relegation zone.

Just about the only consolation for Chelsea was that it stretched its unbeaten home league record to 80 matches, although for most of the fans dejectedly leaving Stamford Bridge at the end, the draw must have felt more like a crushing defeat.

Agencies

(China Daily 04/16/2008 page24)