Swansea: A last-gasp own goal by Neil Taylor gave Chelsea a 1-1 draw at Swansea on Tuesday, as the Welsh club was narrowly denied another impressive home victory in the Premier League.
Scott Sinclair had given Swansea the lead when the former Blues winger volleyed the ball over Petr Cech five minutes before half-time after a poor defensive header by Jose Bosingwa.
Swansea, who stunned Arsenal at Liberty Stadium two weeks ago with a 3-2 win, looked set to take another big scalp when Chelsea defender Ashley Cole was sent off for a second booking in the 86th. However, the visitors still leveled when Bosingwa's shot was deflected into the net by Taylor in injury time.
Chelsea, without captain John Terry due to a knee injury and with new signing Gary Cahill on the bench, had Branislav Ivanovic and David Luiz in central defence and the former saved the visitors twice during a sluggish opening from Andre Villas-Boas' side.
The home side started the match well, quickly settling into their usual rhythm and maintaining possession well in midfield. Ivanovic first denied Danny Graham a simple finish after Steven Caulker's header had rebounded to the striker.
It took the men from west London almost 15 minutes to create an opening, when Luiz took off on a trademark surge forward and his left-wing cross found Daniel Sturridge, who fired wide of Michel Vorm's left-hand post.
Ivanovic was involved again when a long ball pumped toward Graham caused chaos in the visiting defence.
Cech could only clear the ball to Gylfi Sigurdsson, who skipped past the goalkeeper, but saw Ivanovic block his goal-bound effort. Graham's follow-up attempt was kept out by Luiz and Joe Allen was denied by the recovering goalkeeper.
Chelsea then gradually began to take a stranglehold on the game, dominating possession and pinning Swansea deep in their own half.
Ashley Williams made a terrific interception to cut out Fernando Torres' intended pass to an unmarked Sturridge, while Juan Mata fired wastefully wide of either post after more patient build-up.
But after absorbing the pressure Swansea took the lead against the run of play as Sinclair netted against his former club. Sigurdsson's free kick was weakly headed away by Bosingwa, and a swing of Sinclair's left foot saw the ball float over Cech into the far corner. The Liberty Stadium crowd erupted but the Swans' winger refused to celebrate the goal against his former club.
Stung by the concession of the goal so late in the first half, Chelsea completely dominated the opening exchanges of the second period.
The visitors initially created little in the way of clear-cut chances, although they would have leveled had any blue-shirted attackers made the effort to follow in Cole's astute ball across the Swansea six-yard box.
Villas-Boas brought Michael Essien on for Oriol Romeu, and the move almost paid instant dividends as the Ghanaian blasted a fierce drive narrowly over Vorm's bar.
The Blues were looking ominous and Bosingwa tested the home side's defence with a superb run and cross from the right, but Angel Rangel kept calm to clear the ball with a header before Vorm gathered Steven Caulker's deflection from Raul Meireles' follow-up.
The Portuguese full-back was becoming Chelsea's main source of attacking threat as he again surged forward and found Sturridge inside the penalty area - the former Manchester City man turned neatly away from his marker but could only toe-poke the ball agonisingly past the post.
But Chelsea wasted several more chances and grew increasingly frustrated as Cole picked up a second booking for a rash tackle on Nathan Dyer and was dismissed. The England left-back will now miss Chelsea's match against Manchester United at the weekend.
But their pressure finally told as Bosingwa again tricked his way into the box and saw his driven effort strike Taylor to deceive Vorm and rescue a point.
Torres failed to score his first Premier League goal for Chelsea since September on the first anniversary of his 50 million-Pound move from Liverpool. Chelsea, meanwhile, are now seven points adrift of Tottenham in fourth, after the Spurs swept past Wigan with a 3-1 win.
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