After a first half short on chances, Daniel Sturridge broke the deadlock when he clinically converted Ashley Cole's pass for his ninth goal of the season. Chelsea had a scare 14 minutes from time when a poor backpass from Branislav Ivanovic resulted in the defender having to clear a Franco Di Santo shot off the line, but they did not learn their lesson and Jordi Gomez tucked away an equaliser in the 88th minute. It was a doubly disappointing result for Chelsea after they had hauled themselves back into the Premier League title race with victory over leaders Manchester City on Monday. Manager Villas-Boas said: "They were two completely different halves. The first 20 minutes of the second half we were good and it was a question of patience until we found the goal. "We could maybe have tried to go for the second goal but we decided to try to hold onto the first and exploit the space in behind. But we conceded two minutes from the end. "That is disappointing and prevented us from getting the three points that we had expected. It's a pity but the players fought hard and I think confidence is not affected." With City, Manchester United, Tottenham and Arsenal not playing until tomorrow, it was a missed opportunity for Chelsea to apply some pressure, but Villas-Boas gave credit to Wigan for their performance. He said: "We have to wait for tomorrow's clashes to see where we stand. We might drop points again to the leaders but I think it was a fair result. "This Wigan is a different Wigan. They've picked up momentum from a recent run of good results. The crowd was behind them and they fought hard to get the point." Gomez's goal also appeared to be avoidable, with Petr Cech failing to hold onto a poke towards goal from Hugo Rodallega, presenting the Spaniard with an empty net for his fourth goal in five matches. Villas-Boas did not single out his keeper for blame, though, adding: "It was collective mistakes. Wigan made the best of our lack of concentration." The point was not enough to lift the home side out of the bottom three but it was another big step forward after last weekend's win at West Brom, and boss Roberto Martinez felt it could have been better still. He said: "When you're playing against a team like Chelsea you know you need to be perfect in what you do. We were outstanding. We defended with a real tactical knowledge from the players, real awareness and great concentration. "I feel we frustrated Chelsea for the majority of the game and it was really tough to concede the goal we conceded - the first shot Chelsea had - and probably at the moment we were a little bit distracted by Frank Lampard being off the pitch. "But we reacted in the right manner, we kept creating chances, and then you look at the stats. If you end the game with more corners and more attempts on target against a team like Chelsea, it's because you performed really well. "I'm pleased but if you ask me tomorrow, maybe I'll be disappointed because I feel we dropped two points." Martinez, meanwhile, felt Wigan were harshly treated by referee Martin Atkinson, who turned down their penalty appeals after Victor Moses' shot had hit Ivanovic on the arm. The Spaniard, who also disputed the addition of only four minutes of stoppage time, said: "I felt Ivanovic knew exactly what he was doing and he moved his body towards the ball. The arm was next to his body so I understand the referee's decision. "Probably two or three big decisions did not go in our favour, but you expect Chelsea to have those moments. You need to be lucky to get a result against a team like Chelsea, and I don't think we were lucky at all."
