Christmas calamity at the Bridge as 1.03 Chelsea chuck away chance of a win

Premier League / Editor / 26 December 2007 / Leave a Comment

Unbelievable scenes in west London and on the exchange as Chelsea throw it away against Villa...

Chelsea forgot the festive cheer when letting down their backers on Boxing Day - the Blues were trading at [1.03] on Betfair before conceding a penalty in the 91st minute to draw 4-4 at Stamford Bridge.

In an amazing match Avram Grant's men clearly looked as though they'd been at the Christmas port when going down to two first-half goals. At that point they hit [14.5] on the exchange with Villa trading at [1.36].

But somehow Chelsea managed to pull themselves back into it, a late penalty before the break was followed by two goals early in the second half to take a 3-2 lead. That made the Blues the in-running choice for punters at [1.05].

Yet, in keeping with the Christmas craziness it was Aston Villa who were to surprise the home team with an equaliser to level it at 3-3. Surely that was the end of the madness? No chance.

An 88th minute Michael Ballack free-kick appeared to have sent Chelsea to the win they were expecting with the Blues hitting [1.03] on Betfair. However, being panto season there was bound to be more drama, and it came in injury time when Ashley Cole was ruled to have handballed on the line to give Villa a lifeline - which they took through a Gareth Barry penalty.

In one of the the other 1pm kick-offs, West Ham hit [1.14] after taking the lead at Upton Park against 10-man Reading. But Curbishley's men could not hold on, conceding in the second half in a match that ended 1-1.