Salomon Kalou to the Rescue as Chelsea FC Holds United to 1-1 Draw

For 80 minutes of the match today between Chelsea and Manchester United at Stamford Bridge, it appeared likely that Chelsea would have to give up their unbeaten home record and admit defeat to most bitter rivals in United.

The Blues have been unbeaten at home since February of 2004, and unfortunately for United, there was a certain Ivorian man who wanted to keep it that way.

Salomon Kalou headed home a goal from a John Obi Mikel free-kick 10 minutes from time to ensure that Chelsea would have a share of the points, as well maintaining their points gap over United and keeping intact their brilliant home record.

United took the lead on 18 minutes, when Ji-Sung Park tapped in following excellent build-up play from the champions.

Wayne Rooney started the attack, making Evra gallop past Jose Bosingwa to reach his through ball. After reaching the ball, Evra sent in a pinpoint cross to find Dimitar Berbatov, whose shot was pushed out by Cech, leaving Ji-Sung Park with the rather easy task of bundling the ball in.

After losing Deco to injury in the pre-match warm-up, Chelsea finally got into their stride after spending the first half hour very much on the back foot.

A poor back header from Gary Neville gave Chelsea a great chance, but Malouda could not take advantage after injuring the onrushing Edwin Van der Sar. The veteran Dutchman was eventually forced off the pitch, being replaced by Tomas Kuszczak.

Chelsea upped their game in the second half, bringing on Didier Drogba for the rather poor Florent Malouda, who still seems yet to settle to the English game.

Chelsea were dominating at the start of the second half, so Sir Alex Ferguson had to respond, and he did by bringing the talismanic Cristiano Ronaldo.

The Portuguese star managed to up United's game, and gave the Chelsea defence a fair amount of problems throughout the second half.

But being the Cristiano Ronaldo we all know, he had to show off his acting skills and had a great opportunity to do just that when Frank Lampard tackled him. A blatant dive that will do nothing to help regain the respect he once had with United fans.

But as United upped their game, so did Chelsea, and it seemed like a matter of time before Chelsea got an equaliser.

And they did just that when Kalou scored on 80 minutes. After Wayne Rooney chopped down Ashley Cole, Obi Mikel floated a free-kick over the United defence and to the unmarked Kalou, who headed home to insist that Chelsea won't be beaten at Stamford Bridge.