Chelsea captain John Terry was sent-off as the ten-man Blues failed to go top of the English Premier League after being held to a goalless draw away to Everton here Monday.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 on when Steven Pienaar had a 'goal' disallowed by Dowd.
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."
Everton were without a recognised striker because of injury and manager David Moyes said: "We wanted the win even before the sending-off. We tried to get the goal and the players did everything we could ask.
"Obviously we are short of centre forwards and maybe that was the difference," he added.
Chelsea, who'd seen Liverpool drop points in a 1-1 draw away to Arsenal on Sunday, were going for a Premier League record of 12 straight away wins against an Everton side that had won just once on home turf all season.
Moyes again fielded Australia's Tim Cahill as the lone man up front after the midfielder had scored an injury-time winner at Manchester City last week.
Chelsea made the brighter start, though, and defender Ashley Cole saw a left foot volley pushed behind by United States goalkeeper Tim Howard.
Moyes's team, who suffered a dramatic 3-2 defeat against Aston Villa in their last outing at Goodison Park, responded well and captain Phil Neville's 25-yard effort forced Cech into a fine save.
Chelsea, with Nicolas Anelka once again keeping fellow striker Didier Drogba on the bench, struggled to make any headway against the home side.
Their frustration spilled over in the 35th minute when Terry committed the foul that saw him rightly sent-off by Dowd.
Terry was always up against it in his bid to beat Osman to the ball inside the Everton half and he mis-timed his tackle badly, catching his opponent on the leg in front of the referee and, for the second time this season, Chelsea's skipper found himself dismissed.
Had Everton been blessed with a full complement of strikers, a second-half onslaught on Chelsea's goal could have been expected.
But with their options limited, only a Marouane Fellaini header from Neville's cross, saved by Cech in the 53rd minute, was created by a cautious Everton before Pienaar's attempt.
Meanwhile an off-target 30-yard strike from Frank Lampard in the 75th minute was as close as Chelsea came to scoring.
Everton almost grabbed a winner when Fellaini's back-heel bounced just wide of the far post 10 minutes from the finish, but Chelsea somehow held out to claim what could ultimately prove to be a crucial point.
