Premier League: Fulham 2 - 2 Chelsea

Match reports

The Guardian, Kevin McCarra:

"Chelsea wavered for an instant and their season swung drastically off course. Following Clint Dempsey's second goal of the afternoon for Fulham, in the 89th minute, the visitors now lie three points behind the Premier League leaders Liverpool and their next fixture in this competition is at Old Trafford. They will feel all the more distressed because they failed marginally to come up with the type of gritty victory that would have smacked of the Mourinho period."

Daily Telegraph, Oliver Bown:

"The late Charlton Heston once observed, in his capacity as head of America’s National Rifle Association, that “guns don’t kill people, people kill people.” But, as Eddie Izzard memorably retorted, “I think the gun helps”. Luiz Felipe Scolari betrayed, in his endearingly mangled English, some of Heston’s flawed thought process when asked why, after Clint Dempsey’s last-minute header had deprived Chelsea of two vital points in the title chose, he had chosen not to station a defender at the far post of Fulham’s goal. “Posts don’t score goals, players score goals,” he said. Yes, but the post helps."

The Times, Matt Hughes:

"As a gentleman, Scolari had the good grace to wish the media a happy new year after he had rounded on his players’ poor defending in the postmatch press conference, but the Chelsea manager’s own outlook is far from rosy. A run of disappointing results has hardened from a blip to a trend, with his team collecting only ten points from the past 21 available, winning only two of seven matches."

Official Chelsea FC Website:

"The Blues remain unbeaten away in the league in 2008 but there is huge disappointment as a win is allowed to slip from grasp late on."

The goals

10' Dempsey
50' Lampard
72' Lampard
89' Dempsey

The Result

Fulham 2 - 2 Chelsea

*Every cloud has a silver lining, Liverpool may have won the battle yesterday but not the war..