Wigan Athletic turned it on against an in form Chelsea team tonight and will consider themselves unlucky to only get a draw out of the game. Jordi Gomez continued his scoring run cancelling out Daniel Sturridge’s opener.

BARCLAYS PREMIER LEAGUE – DW STADIUM – Saturday 17th December 2011

WIGAN ATHLETIC
Jordi Gomez (88)

1-1
CHELSEA
Daniel Sturridge (59)

A never say die attitude saw Latics come back from a goal down to draw against third place Chelsea, but with a bit more luck and another referee, we could well have taken all the spoils from this one.

The opening 20 minutes were dominated by Chelsea, keeping possession but not really being able to break down Latics defence. John Terry showed his frustration with a lazy looking Drogba by having their only meaningful shot of the opening quarter, but even that was never troubling Al Habsi’s goal.

Latics did start getting into this game after the opening pressure subsided and had decent efforts on goal from Conor Sammon and Victor Moses well saved by Cech. Mohammed Diame started to come into the game and was unlucky not score on the half hour.

The midfielder didn’t get the rewards his jinking run deserved as he saw his shot go narrowly wide of the post. Victor Moses was looking to add to his goals tally and had the arm of Ivanovic not got in the way, he may well have done.

Amazingly the referee decided for the second time in the game that this didn’t warrant a penalty when everybody else in the ground did. The half was rounded off with Latics wondering how they didn’t go in with the lead.

The second half continued in the same way, Chelsea were still to record a shot on target, whilst Latics were getting closer to the target with Moses, Gomez and Figueroa all testing Cech. That all changes as a long ball from Ashley Cole landed at Daniel Sturridge’s feet who only needed one touch before volleying past Al Habsi.

It was a shock to the system for Latics but their heads never went down a they continued plugging away at the 10 man Chelsea wall in front of them. The visitors soaked up the pressure as wave after wave of pressure came from Latics.

But it ended up with Latics benefiting from a fumble by Petr Cech to get their equaliser; Hugo Rodallega made a great run down the left and jinked inside past three defenders only to toe poke a relatively feeble shot straight at the Chelsea goal keeper.

Uncharacteristically though he spilled the ball and it landed at Jordi Gomez’s feet to tap in from three yards. It was nothing more than we deserved and credit to the team for going for the win in the final two minutes as well.
Franco di Santo went close before Victor Moses and Mohammed Diame had good efforts blocked. The game finished 1-1 but it could so easily have been a better scoreline for Latics.

 

Cockney Latic Man of the Match: Mohammed Diame
Referee: Martin Atkinson
Attendance: 18,320
LINE UP
WIGAN ATHLETIC CHELSEA
26 Ali Al Habsi 1 Petr Cech
23 Ronnie Stam 26 John Terry
5 Gary Caldwell 17 Jose Bosingwa
3 Antolin Alcaraz 2 Branislav Ivanovic
31 Maynor Figueroa 3 Ashley Cole
21 Mohamed Diame 8 Frank Lampard
14 Jordi Gomez 10 Juan Mata
4 James McCarthy 6

Oriol Romeu

19 Dave Jones 11 Didier Drogba
11 Victor Moses 16 Raul Meireles
18 Conor Sammon 23 Daniel Sturridge
SUBS
12 Mike Pollitt 22 Ross Turnbull
2 Steve Gohouri 19 Paulo Ferreira
7 Albert Crusat 15 Florent Malouda
8 Ben Watson 20 Josh McEachran
16 James McArthur 12 Mikel John Obi
20 Hugo Rodallega 9 Fernando Torres
9 Franco Di Santo 21 Salomon Kalou
TIMELINE
45′ Player Off Oriol Romeu
Player On Salomon Kalou
59′ Goal Daniel Sturridge
66′ Player Off Juan Mata
Player On Mikel John Obi
72′ Player Off Dave Jones
Player On Hugo Rodallega
72′ Player Off Conor Sammon
Player On Franco di Santo
80′ Player Off Daniel Sturridge
Player On Florent Malouda
88′ Goal Jordi Gomez

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