Given makes Chelsea pay fresh penalty

Shay Given’s late penalty save denied Frank Lampard and earned Manchester City a 2-1 win over leaders Chelsea at Eastlands here on Saturday to reignite the Premier League title race.

City’s win, which ended a run of seven straight league draws, cut Chelsea’s lead over second-placed reigning champions United, who beat West Ham 4-0 earlier on Saturday, to just two points with Old Trafford old boy Carlos Tevez scoring the winning goal.

Chelsea could have rescued a point late on but, having been knocked out of the League Cup on Wednesday by Blackburn in a shoot-out, they saw Given save Lampard’s 82nd minute spot-kick after Nedum Onuoha had upended Didier Drogba in the penalty area.

A record Eastlands crowd of 47,348 saw Emmanuel Adebayor score for both teams in an entertaining first half before Tevez converted a second-half free-kick to put City in front.

City’s defence, so widely criticised during their team’s recent indifferent run, opened in characteristically shambolic fashion and played a key part in Chelsea taking the lead with the game just eight minutes old.

The visitors weathered a lively start from City and Given had already been forced to save well from Deco by the time Chelsea won a corner, which television replays suggested referee Howard Webb should not have awarded.

Nevertheless, there was little excuse for the way Joleon Lescott allowed the corner to be kept in play and returned into the area from the right wing by Michael Ballack.

The marking was non-existent as Drogba headed across goal and Branislav Ivanovic forced a superb close-range save from Republic of Ireland star Given.

Former City striker Nicolas Anelka pounced on the loose ball, with Given again making an incredible stop, only for the ball to rebound off the back of Adebayor and into the net.

City’s response gained momentum as the half wore on.

Micah Richards headed over from a Gareth Barry corner and Kolo Toure powered from deep to test Petr Cech with a tame shot.

Adebayor turned a pull-back from Barry wide and Cech parried a fierce near-post strike from Shaun Wright-Phillips as City’s pressure mounted.

Barry’s threatening shot was deflected behind off Michael Essien and Cech, feeling the increasing pressure, made a mistake which allowed Wright-Phillips to find Richards whose header was cleared off the line, spectacularly, by Ricardo Carvalho.

An equaliser was coming and duly arrived in the 37th minute when Cech only half-cleared a Tevez corner and a Wright-Phillips shot struck Richards’s arm before bouncing into the path of Adebayor, who scored from close range.

Chelsea’s players appealed for handball but Webb let the goal stand, presumably on the grounds that Richards’s action was not deliberate.

Drogba’s free-kick, from the edge of the City area, passed inches wide and there was action at the other end early in the second-half when Adebayor’s shot was cleared off the line by Ivanovic.

Then Carvalho was penalised – and booked – for a high boot on Tevez as he attempted to clear.

The Argentine took the set piece himself, on the edge of the Chelsea area directly in front of goal, and bent a shot around the wall and past the dive of Cech.

Drogba and Ivanovic both came close with headers, from a Lampard free-kick and Deco corner respectively, either side of a double substitution from Chelsea which saw Juliano Belletti and John Obi Mikel brought on as they tried to maintain their comfortable cushion at the top of the table.

Chelsea’s discipline frayed with six players eventually earning cautions and Drogba was guilty of a bad miss, even after the penalty incident, when he failed to find the target after being played in by Essien.