Despite controlling the game and taking the lead through Didier Drogba, Chelsea let a victory slip in the dying minutes when concentration dropped and Tim Cahill was on hand to punish us for it.

Chelsea continued our unbeaten run in league games today taking the total up to 69 and the Blues were after our 50th league win against Everton at home.

However, for the second season running David Moyes's side have left Stamford Bridge with a point.

Today saw Wayne Bridge make his second league start of the season whilst Carlo Cudicini had his first due to Cech missing the fixture after the calf injury he sustained against Schalke.

The side was mostly unchanged compared to the one that had played in the Champions League mid-week except Shaun Wright-Phillips started on the right and Joe Cole played on the left instead of Malouda. Mikel replaced Makelele in midfield.

Chelsea's first chance of the game came within two minutes when Wright-Phillips crossed towards Drogba in the centre, however, the ball flew out of the strikers reach and landed at the feet of Joe Cole who had run on to collect the ball, only to have his shot deflected.

Two minutes later, Cole was at it again when he broke down the middle of the field and allowed Frank Lampard to control play from the edge of the box, leading to a dicey few seconds for Everton. However, the ball was cleared without any real opportunities for the Blues.

On the six minute mark, Lampard released a lovely pass that carried through the air from the left into a space on the right-hand side of the box which Essien was running into, but Howard had the same vision as Essien and managed to beat the midfielder to the spot and collected the ball.

Essien then broke down the right again two minutes later but was brought down three yards outside the box. Joe Cole stepped up to take the free-kick which eventually lead to an offside decision against Chelsea.

The Blues continued to apply the pressure past the ten minute mark with Lampard, Bridge and Wright-Phillips all making some fantastic passes in their attempts to find Drogba in space.

In the 15th minute, Pienaar narrowly missed out on opening up the scoring for Everton when a cross span inches out his reach across the face of goal.

However, the counter-attack that followed led to two Chelsea corners which took us even closer to scoring than Pienaar's opportunity only seconds before.

In the 20th minute, Carvalho jumped for a ball and was beaten off in the air by the back of Tim Cahill which sent the Chelsea centre-back crashing to the floor in a contorted fashion.

Carvalho seemed to have hurt his back and immediately began to roll on the ground in obvious pain. However, after a few minutes on the sideline, the Portuguese defender rebuilt his strength and rejoined his team.

Chelsea were still controlling the game by the 25th minute, with Wright-Phillips, Drogba and Cole all causing problems for the Everton back line.

Mikel gave away a free-kick from 30 yards out in the 26th minute and Drogba continued to annoy the Everton side when he cleared the ball from danger at the far post with his head.

Wright-Phillips came extremely close to breaking the deadlock when Lampard received a Drogba cross on the far post and played the ball to the winger's feet, forcing Howard to pull off a fantastic save and deny the goal.

It was Lampard's turn to try his luck and entice yet another brilliant save from the Everton keeper when Belletti broke down the right and released a cross which fell to Lampard only inches inside the box.

The knock that Carvalho had taken from Cahill allowed Tal Ben-Haim to play his first game since Leicester when he came on to replace the defender.

By the half-hour mark, the game was completely Chelsea's as Howard was called into action by Cole and Drogba whilst Cudicini remained completely untested between the Chelsea posts.

Drogba won a free-kick from 20 yards out after Neville nudged him to the ground as he attempted to dribble into the box in the 32nd minute. However, the subsequent shot from the striker went high and wide.

Neville continued to play aggressive football but was soon shown the yellow card for pulling on the face of Ben-Haim.

Wright-Phillips won a free-kick in the 43rd minute, 35 yards out and in Alex's territory. The central defender took the free-kick which ricocheted off the wall into the path of Bridge who also had a shot from 25 yards out but it unfortunately went high and wide.

Bridge broke down the left as the fourth official indicated three minutes of added time and launched a beautiful through ball which span into the path of Wright-Phillips. However, the winger could not manage to take a shot from inside the box and instead released the ball across the face of goal which flew only centimetres out of the reach of Drgoba, the best chance of the first half.

At half-time the game was completely within Chelsea's control with Cudicini only having to catch the ball once.

Everton replaced Neville with James McFadden and Ayegbeni Yakubu with Victor Anichebe during the break.

The Blues started the second half as we had finished the first with most of the play continuing around the Everton box, with Wright-Phillips coming close straight after the whistle.

The right-winger continued to cause trouble with Valente being forced to block cross after cross from the number 24.

In the 50th minute, Lampard won a free-kick which he sent across the face of goal, the ball flew over the heads of Mikel and Alex but was almost sent into the back of the net by Cahill.

Belletti then collected a yellow card after a tackle on Anichebe when the right-back knocked the forward to the ground with his arm right in front of the referee.

In the 54th minute, Chelsea continued to display our quality as Cole latched onto a through ball from Wright-Phillips and carried out a clever little one-two with Essien before launching a shot on the edge of the box which Howard comfortably collected.

It wasn't until the 60th minute that Chelsea had another clear chance when Essien collected the ball on the edge of the box but only managed to pull off a shot along the floor which ended up a few inches wide of the post.

In the 63rd minute, Salomon Kalou came on to replace Wright-Phillips. Cole then moved over to the right whilst Kalou took up the role on the left.

The effect could be seen straight away as Kalou made a run into the box from his first touch of the game, forcing a corner.

From the corner Alex was able to pick up the ball on the edge of the box where he released a screaming shot along the ground towards the bottom left. The ball was then cleared off the line after a scramble by the Everton backs.

Essien was then shown the yellow card in the 67th minute when he attempted to tackle Osman and unintentionally smashed into the shin of the midfielder as he ran onto the ball.

By the 70th minute, Chelsea were still controlling the game but could not convert our possession into a goal.

However, that all changed in the 71st minute when Drogba received a corner kick from Kalou and smashed the ball into the back of the net with his head. The deadlock was finally broken.

The goal seemed to breathe some new life into David Moyes's side, something the manager tried to take advantage of when he substituted Lee Carsley for Thomas Gravesen in the 76th minute.

However, despite Everton's increased build-ups around the Chelsea box, Cudicini remained untested in goal whilst Chelsea's counter-attacks began to look more dangerous on each endeavour.

One of those counter-attacks saw Cole release a ball into the path of Lampard who only narrowly missed the opportunity to make it two for the Blues in the 80th minute.

The game began to equal out as the minutes closed in and the Blues seemed to relax. It wasn't long before Chelsea were forced to pay for complacency when Cahill collected in the box right in front of Belletti and Cudicini after a McFadden pass and the midfielder pulled off a scissor kick to even the score in the 88th minute.

The game finished 1-1 with Chelsea missing the perfect opportunity to seal three points from the fixture.

Chelsea (4-3-3) Cudicini: Belletti, Alex, Carvalho, Bridge: Essien, Mikel, Lampard (c): Wright-Phillips (Kalou 63), Drogba, J Cole.
Scorer: Drogba 70.
Booked: Belletti, Essien, Mikel.

Everton (4-2-3-1) Howard: Hibbert, Yobo, Lescott, Valente; Carsley (Gravesen 76), Neville (c) (McFadden h-t); Cahill Osman, Pienaar; Yakubu (Anichebe h-t).
Scorer: Cahill 88
Booked Neville,

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By Christian Collison