Chelsea and Tottenham Hotspur were locked in a 1-1 draw in their Premiership clash at Stamford Bridge on Sunday.

The result meant that the Blues lost their 100 per cent start to the season, while Spurs opened their account in the points table after coming into today’s game with no points placed at the foot of the table.

Juliano Belletti gave the lead to the Blues in the 28th minute, while Darren Bent restored parity for Spurs in the 45th minute.

The first clear-cut chance for the Blues came early in the game when Frank Lampard, who was making his 250th Premiership appearance for the west-Londoners, latched onto Joe Cole pass to make a fine 20-yard chip that looked to be bound to bulge the net. But Spurs keeper Heurelho Gomes, who was out of position, back-pedalled to make a timely finger-tip save.

Spurs then showed that they were up for the fight and gave a good account of themselves with David Bentley in particular, working hard to provide the thrust.

Chelsea then had a flurry of opportunities with Nicolas Anelka wasting one of them blazing over after Belletti had sent in a superb floater from right. Michael Essien’s piledriver rattled the cross bar as the Blues upped the ante, but the resultant corner brought the cheers to the home fans.

Luiz Felipe Scolari’s side took the lead with Belletti cashing in on a goalmouth scramble following a corner kick as Spurs failed to clear the lines and Bent miscued his clearance to slice the ball into the Blues full-back and the deflection was enough to open the home side’s scoring nearing the half hour mark.

Spurs then found it hard to control the proceedings, but they grabbed the equaliser on the stroke of the half time through Bent, who placed the ball through Petr Cech’s legs from left side of the penalty area after a deflection off Lampard saw the ball come straight to the Spurs striker.

Ashley Cole had the first sight of the goal on the start of the second half, as he struck an angular shot from the left channel that went across the face of the goal and narrowly wide of the far post after Essien made the cross-field assist.

The proceedings developed into a tight tactical battle in the next 15 minutes as Spurs boss Juande Ramos made two quick changes introducing Aaron Lennon and Tom Huddlestone in place of Chris Gunter and Giovani. The Blues saw Florent Malouda replacing Joe Cole.

Spurs came up with a promising move with Bent getting some support as Huddlestone got into an attacking position before seeing his shot deflected out of play off John Terry.

Chelsea substitute Salomon Kalou had a chance to get the winner when Anelka headed on for the Ivorian, who however, failed to get a good contact with his angular drive from the right side of the penalty area.

The match developed into a frantic contest as the final whistle approached with both teams giving it their everything. Gareth Bale embarked on a superb run from left, only for Bosingwa to bring him down and get booked. The resultant free-kick taken by the Welshman was blocked by the wall.

Spurs defender Jonathan Woodgate came up with a crucial challenge to thwart Lampard inside the penalty area in the injury time.

Teams:

Chelsea: Cech, Carvalho, A Cole, Bosingwa, Belletti (Kalou 76), Terry, Deco, Essien, Lampard, J Cole (Malouda 66), Anelka (Di Santo 89).

Substitutes not used: Cudicini, Bridge, Alex, Ferreira.

Tottenham: Gomes, Woodgate, Gunter (Huddlestone 63), King, Giovani (Lennon 59), Jenas, Zokora, Bale, Bentley (O’Hara 73), Modric, Bent.

Substitutes not used: Cesar, Assou-Ekotto, Dawson, Gilberto.