Chelsea miss chance with 1-1 draw at Hull
LONDON (AP) — Chelsea missed the chance to go four points clear at the top of the English Premier League with a 1-1 draw at Hull yesterday.
Defender Steven Mouyokolo gave Hull a surprise lead in the 30th minute and, although Didier Drogba equalised 12 minutes later with his 20th goal of the season, Chelsea were unable to convert concerted pressure into more goals.
The draw left Chelsea on 55 points, three clear of defending champions Manchester United. Both teams have played 24 games, the same as third-placed Arsenal, who were another four points back and at Chelsea on Sunday.
Chelsea had already missed a couple of chances when Mouyokolo got his first goal for Hull. The central defender outjumped a cluster of Chelsea defenders, including John Terry, to head in a 29th-minute corner by Stephen Hunt.
Terry was jeered throughout by Hull fans following last week’s newspaper allegations that he had an affair with an England teammate’s former partner.
But Chelsea continued to press and Drogba, playing his first Chelsea game in a month following his stint at the African Cup of Nations with Ivory Coast, scored direct from a free kick just outside the area.
Jozy Altidore missed with a headed chance for Hull and teammate Amr Zaki troubled the visiting defence, but Drogba missed at the other end as the home team held on for a valuable point in their fight against relegation.
Hull were still in the relegation zone but was level on 21 points with the three teams immediately above it.
Also yesterday, Premier League strugglers Wolverhampton Wanderers and Wigan were knocked out of the FA Cup after losing fourth-round replays to lower-league sides.
Crystal Palace defender Danny Butterfield scored a hat-trick in seven second-half minutes to give the League Championship side a 3-1 win over Wolves, while Wigan were humiliated 2-0 by visiting Notts County of the fourth tier.