Cool Clint doubles up to clip.

Cool Clint doubles up to clip Chelsea's charge Chelsea's title aspirations suffered yet another body blow as neighbours Fulham struck at the death to claim a point at Craven Cottage. Clint Dempsey was the hero for the hosts, as a thumping far-post header grabbed a share of the spoils with seconds left. The American had poked the Cottagers ahead with just ten minutes on the clock, before Chelsea eventually battled back, Frank Lampard levelling matters. And the Blues midfielder thought he had done enough to claim all three points with a long-range free-kick, before Dempsey rose unmarked to rescue a point. Chelsea are now three points behind league leaders Liverpool after claiming just ten points from a possible 21. But Blues boss Luiz Felipe Scolari could not fault his players for their effort as he said: "We had six, seven, eight chances to score and got two. They had two, from free-kicks, and scored twice. We had possession, but we made two dangerous mistakes in our box and because of that we've lost two points, it was just incredible. "But we're in a good position, we just need to win games." Chelsea were hoping to follow up their comfortable Boxing Day win over West Brom but Fulham had other ideas. And Roy Hodgson's men took a deserved lead when Dempsey controlled a Simon Davies free-kick and prodded the ball past Petr Cech. Chelsea had started with Didier Drogba up front and Nicolas Anelka on the bench. But the Frenchman was brought on due to an injury to Florent Malouda and Chelsea immediately looked much more threatening, with Mark Schwarzer called into action to deny the substitute and then Lampard in quick succession. The Blues suffered another injury blow before the break, when Alex limped off to be replaced by Ricardo Carvalho. The changes clearly did not have too much of a negative effect as the Blues were level five minutes after the restart. Drogba was the intended target of a Joe Cole ball, but it was Lampard who fired home as the Fulham defence got in a tangle. And Lampard was at it again 20 minutes later, somehow beating Schwarzer with a 30-yard free-kick. The Blues thought they had the points in the bag until Dempsey powered home a Davies corner to earn a share of the spoils. And Fulham boss Hodgson said: "Credit to our players, they didn't lose their heads and they managed to score a wonderful late equaliser. It was a fantastic fighting effort." FULHAM: Schwarzer, Pantsil, Hangeland, Hughes, Konchesky, Davies, Ethuhu (Andreasen 78), Murphy (Baird 90), Dempsey, Zamora (Nevland 78), Johnson CHELSEA: Cech, Bosingwa, Ivanovic, Alex (Carvalho 37), A Cole, Deco, Mikel, Lampard, J Cole (Kalou 72), Anelka, Malouda (Anelka 30).

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