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Chelsea's John Terry (left) is being sent off by referee Phil Dowd for a tackle on Everton's Leon Osman during their EPL match at Goodison Park in Liverpool yesterday. The match ended in goalless draw. pic/AP |
This result at Goodison Park saw Chelsea move to within a point of leaders Liverpool Everton's city rivals topping the table at Christmas and ended a run of 11 straight away league wins for the London club.
Chelsea played nearly an hour of the match a man down after England skipper Terry received a straight red card from referee Phil Dowd for a late and dangerous tackle on Everton midfielder Leon Osman.
But, despite the centre-half's expulsion 10 minutes before half-time, Everton without a recognised striker because of injury couldn't score and the draw saw them stay seventh in the table.
Everton did almost snatch victory late in the match when Steven Pienaar had a 'goal' disallowed.
The South African midfielder bundled the ball over the line six minutes from time after Chelsea keeper Petr Cech had saved Osman's initial shot.
But having seemingly strayed into an offside position, Pienaar's goal was then chalked off after Dowd ruled that the ball had been kicked out of Cech's grasp, with the goalkeeper clearly having two hands on the ball.
"It's a tough place to come with 11 men," Cech told Setanta Sports. "We were down to 10, but we kept the ball and controlled the game quite well.
"They had the extra man so of course they had chances from set-plays but we can be satisfied. It's a pity we couldn't win. We could have been top of the league again but it's a good point."
Czech international Cech, asked about Terry's sending-off, added: "It's hard to say because I was far from it.
"It was hard for the ref to see what happened. He had a split second... he made a decision and we have to live with that."
