Chelsea held 1-1 at West Ham

Chelsea held 1-1 at West Ham

LONDON, Dec. 20 -- Frank Lampard fired penalty kick to pull off a 1-1 draw for Chelsea at his former club West Ham on Sunday, keeping four points ahead of Manchester United at the top of the Premier League.

West Ham went ahead in the final minute of the first half as Ashley Cole brought down Jack Collison to enable Alessandro Diamanti to drive home the penalty.

West Ham's Mark Noble (R) challenges for the ball with Chelsea's Ricardo Carvalho during their English Premier League soccer match at Upton Park in London December 20, 2009.

Chelsea equalized in the 61st minute after Matthew Upson was harshly judged to have brought down Daniel Sturridge even though the West Ham defender appeared to make contact with the ball.

Lampard twice fired home the spot kick but each time had to take it again because players from both teams had run into the penalty area.

He had to convert the penalty a third time and earned one point for the Premier League leaders.

West Ham's Guillermo Franco (R) challenges for the ball with Chelsea's Branislav Ivanovic during their English Premier League soccer match at Upton Park in London December 20, 2009.

Chelsea have 41 points from 18 games, four clear of second placed Manchester United, who lost 3-0 at Fulham on Saturday with 37 points.

West Ham would have slipped to last with a defeat but instead moved a point ahead of Portsmouth into 19th place, who beat Liverpool 2-0 on Saturday.

Birmingham's five-game winning streak ended with a 1-1 draw at Everton where Alex McLeish's team had to come from behind to get a point.

Diniyar Bilyaletdinov fired Everton ahead in the fifth minute but Sebastian Larsson equalized in the 22nd as Birmingham jumped above Liverpool into seventh place and stretched its unbeaten run to nine games.

Wolverhampton Wanderers moved out of the relegation zone and upto 12th place after a 2-0 victory over Burnley, which has only captured one point in nine games away from home.　
(Reuters)