Chelsea stunned by late equalizer

LONDON, England -- Chelsea ended with nine men and saw their English title aspirations severely dented as 10-man Aston Villa salvaged a point in an eight-goal thriller at Stamford Bridge on Boxing Day.

Aston Villa took a two-goal lead through a Shaun Maloney double, the second the result of a spectacular blunder by home keeper Petr Cech who was surprisingly passed fit to play.

But Villa had Zak Knight sent off just before half-time in fouling the returning Michael Ballack to concede the penalty which Andriy Shevchenko converted to give Chelsea a lifeline.

Ukrainian star Shevchenko was putting on a five-star performance for the home side and equalized just after half-time before setting up central defender Alex for their third after 66 minutes.

In a remarkable match, Martin Laursen volleyed Villa level before Ricardo Carvalho became the first Chelsea player to be sent off in the 80th minute for a foul on Gabriel Agbonlahor.

German international midfielder Ballack then appeared to have given Avram Grant's men the three points with an 88th minute strike, but the match had a final twist.

England international Ashley Cole was shown red for keeping out a goalward bound effort fro Agbonlahor on the line and Villa captain Gareth Barry stepped up to beat Cech to score a deserved leveler.

Villa manager Martin O'Neill said that a point was the least his side deserved:

"Absolutely, we deserved nothing less than a draw. We were terrific.

"In the first half we were 2-0 in front just before half time, were playing brilliantly and deserved to be in front. "We never gave up and came back from the dead twice."

Consolation for Chelsea was the preservation of their 72-match unbeaten run on their west-London home ground, but the two points dropped did little in their bid to overhaul league pacesetters Manchester United and Arsenal.

They stay in third place with Liverpool moving up to fourth after a dramatic 2-1 away win at bottom club Derby County in a later game on Wednesday.

Fernando Torres put them ahead only for Jay McEveley to equalize after the break. Liverpool pushed forward in desperate search of a winner and captain Steven Gerrard obliged in the last minute to keep their slender title hopes alive.

In other matches, Tottenham Hotspur welcomed back Ledley King to their leaky defense and duly thrashed struggling Fulham 5-1 at White Hart Lane.

King played for 75 minutes in his comeback after injury but was largely untroubled as Spurs ran riot with Robbie Keane and Tom Huddlestone scoring twice and Jermain Defoe adding a late fifth.

Reading were reduced to 10 men as Brynjar Gunnarson went in the first half at West Ham for a double-footed lunge, but grabbed a point as Dave Kitson equalized a Nolberto Solano goal after the break.

Birmingham eased their relegation fears with a 3-0 win over fellow strugglers Middlebrough and Everton maintained their fine recent form with a 2-0 home victory against Bolton.

But Newcastle's disappointing run continued with a 1-0 defeat at Wigan who were picking up three much-needed points in the scrap at the bottom.

Ryan Taylor scored witih a superb free kick just after the hour mark. E-mail to a friend