Late Gomez strike rescues deserved point for Wigan

An 87th minute Jordi Gomez tap-in, rescued a point for Wigan as they held a poor Chelsea to a 1-1 draw at the DW Stadium.

Daniel Sturridge's strike just before the hour mark looked set to give Chelsea their fourth successive Premier League win; however Petr Cech's failure to hold a Hugo Rodallega tame shot, gifted Gomez the easy chance to give Wigan a share of the spoils.

Andre Villas-Boas will no doubt be frustrated at his sides failure to hold on, for what would have been an undeserved victory.

John Terry went the closest early on; however his long range effort was never in danger of opening the scoring.

Didier Drogba nearly headed the Blues ahead from a teasing Raul Meireles cross, but the Ivory Coast forward's effort went wide, despite the despairing dive of Ali Al-Habsi in the Wigan goal.

As the half progressed, the more Wigan grew in confidence and controlled the later stages on the first 45 minutes, with Victor Moses a consistent thorn in the Chelsea side.

And it was the former Crystal Palace man who was pivotal in the games first talking point. Moses's shot was goal bound; however Branislav Ivanovic blocked the shot with an arm, only for Martin Atkinson to wave away the home sides appeals.

Roberto Martinez's side deservedly reached half-time level, as Villas-Boas went in search of the victory replacing Oriol Romeu with Salamon Kalou.

The change failed to give them any more of a cutting edge, as Wigan, deploying three centre backs, kept Chelsea at bay.

With the returning Frank Lampard receiving treatment on the sidelines, Chelsea from nowhere opened the scoring. Ashley Cole aimed a brilliant diagonal pass to Sturridge, whose first touch was brilliant to control the ball, with his second devastating, smashing the ball past Al-Habsi.

The goal didn't spurn Chelsea on to kill the game off, with Villas-Boas deciding to replace Sturridge and the lively Juan Mata in an attempt to see the game out.

Instead the move invited Wigan pressure and with time running out, Gomez levelled.

Sub Franco Di Santo did well to find Rodallega, whose shot wasn't the best; however Cech failed to hold and the ball fell perfectly for Gomez who scored his fourth goal in five games.

Four minutes of extra time were signalled, but neither side threatened the all important third goal as Wigan salvaged an unlikely but deserved point.