Chelsea 1 Fulham 1

CLINT DEMPSEY and David Stockdale combined to heap more misery on Chelsea.

American ace Dempsey cancelled out Juan Mata's opener for the Blues while keeper Stockdale was at his best to hand Fulham a share of the derby spoils.

The result made it three consecutive 1-1 draws for Chelsea and Andre Villas-Boas will now find himself even further behind in the title race. Villas-Boas handed Fernando Torres a first start in two months in view of Didier Drogba's impending departure for the African Nations Cup.

Torres' first touch was a loose one and caused him to lose possession inside the first two minutes.

Danny Murphy then clattered into the Spaniard before the Chelsea man turned Daniel Sturridge's curling centre wide.

Dempsey was quickly in the book for hauling back Raul Meireles as he looked to engineer a move on the break.

Torres was eager to impress and he caught Murphy late as he tried to make himself busy.

On nine minutes, Dempsey had Petr Cech scrambling across his goalmouth to palm behind a shot that bounced awkwardly in front of him.

Portuguese Orlando Sa gave David Luiz a test in the centre of defence as he controlled a long ball and tried to work a position but the Brazilian was up to the task.

Sa should have given Fulham the lead on 14 minutes after Stephen Kelly had bamboozled John Terry on the right wing. Kelly's cross to the far post found the head of Sa but he ballooned the effort over.

Torres was then left scratching his head as he found Stockdale in the way of his first-time volley after a superb piece of chest control from Mata's floated centre.

It was non-stop in the west London derby and Sturridge cut across his next effort after Torres' hustling had won possession.

Torres was everywhere but his finishing was poor when he tried to curl home from wide on the right.

Luiz made a trademark burst out of the Chelsea defence midway through the half but his cross was safely plucked by Stockdale.

On 25 minutes Mousa Dembele ghosted past Oriol Romeu but then dragged his effort wide of Cech's left upright.

Play switched back to the other end and Romeu's left-footer was always rising too high. Chelsea came again but Jose Bosingwa's powerful pass across goal was always too strong for Sturridge.

Meireles was next to try his luck but he failed to wrap his foot around the ball properly and the effort sailed well wide.

Dembele failed to test Cech with a header after good work from Karim Frei.

There was no let-up in the end-to-end action and again Luiz marauded forward but his shot was weak and Stockdale gathered. Sturridge ended the half by dragging yet another shot wide of Stockdale's left upright.

Chelsea were quick out of the blocks at the start of the second half and it was Torres who played a part in the opener.

He managed to fool Philippe Senderos and gave Mata the time to pounce and ram a firm drive past Stockdale just two minutes in.

Chelsea's lead lasted just nine minutes, though, as Bryan Ruiz worked a space down the right and Dempsey slid in before Cech to prod home from close range.

Frank Lampard had been anonymous and it was no surprise when he was subbed just after the hour, Villas-Boas looking for more pentration down the left through Florent Malouda.

Sturridge forced Stockdale to tip over his rifled effort and, from the corner, Malouda's flick was stopped by the Fulham keeper and the Frenchman could only stub a snapshot rebound wide.

Villas-Boas sent on Drogba for Sturridge with just under a quarter of the game remaining.

Drogba sprung the offside trap on 76 minutes but his finish from wide on the left never troubled Stockdale.

Meireles' shot on the spin just did not have enough curl on it to find the inside of Stockdale's left post.

Malouda's header with four minutes remaining had Stockdale stretching to palm the ball over and Drogba then saw his header cleared by the Fulham stopper.

Stockdale nearly spilt Malouda's long-range drive and Chelsea almost paid the ultimate price when Pajtim Kasami shot tamely at Cech before Stockdale's fingertips again denied them from Drogba's stoppage-time free-kick.

Source: thesun.co.uk