Bolton close as Villa deny Chelsea

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LONDON, England -- Champions and early pacesetters Chelsea were held to a 1-1 draw by resurgent Aston Villa as Bolton took closer order in second place in the English Premier League with a 2-0 win over Liverpool on Saturday.

Villa have not lost this season under new manager Martin O'Neill and equalized through Gabriel Agbonlahor's header in first-half injury time after Didier Drogba put Chelsea ahead.

Arsenal also closed up as they celebrated Arsene Wenger's 10 years in charge with a 2-1 win at Charlton.

Darren Bent put Charlton ahead at The Valley before two Robin van Persie strikes secured three points for Arsenal, who have moved up to within five points of Chelsea with a game in hand.

Bolton took advantage of a controversial decision in the lunchtime kick off at their Reebok Stadium to take a 1-0 half-time lead.

Liverpool goalkeeper Pepe Reina was penalized for moving just outside his penalty area as he kicked upfield.

Televison replays showed that the decision was mistaken and from the resulting free kick Bolton's veteran midfielder Gary Speed scored with a deflected drive.

Ivan Campo put Sam Allardyce's men 2-0 ahead in the 51st minute when his header from a pass from Kevin Davies hit the underside of the crossbar and went over the goal-line before bouncing out.

Chelsea's Drogba is in a rich vein of scoring form and he took little time to tap-in a free kick from Arjen Robben.

It was his fourth goal in as many days -- he hit a hat-trick in Wednesday's 3-1 Champions League win at Levski Sofia -- and eighth of the season.

Chelsea's Frank Lampard went close to scoring several times, but was denied by goalkeeper Thomas Sorensen, who also stopped a header from Michael Essien.

Aston Villa leveled in first-half injury time through Agbonlahor, who headed in a pass from Liam Ridgewell.

The match was the first time that Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho and his Villa counterpart Martin O'Neill had faced each other since 2003.

Then, Mourinho was manager of FC Porto, which beat O'Neill's Celtic 3-2 in extra time to win the UEFA Cup final.

Sheffield United moved out of the bottom three with a 2-1 win over fellow strugglers Middlesbrough with Phil Jagielka scoring a stunning winner in added time.

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