The drama of the Premiership continues at full swing. With United away and missing games, and a heavily congested programme awaiting them upon their return from Japan, which would almost surely result in point spillage here and there, with Liverpool drawing Arsenal at the Emirates,  Chelsea once again upheld the tradition and missed the chance to go top of the Premier League table as they had captain John Terry shown the red card at Goodison.

The Big Four continue to behave like conjoined twins. Liverpool, with a bit of luck could have been 12 points clear of their rivals, but then again the same can be argued for Chelsea, and United.

At Goodison Park however, fire and brimstone was the norm. In a heated match, at high tempo and flaring nerves, flying tackles and no quarter given, a physical encounter in the 33rd minute which was appealing in quality from a player of the calibre of John Terry, resulted in a straight red card for a reckless studs-up lunge at Leon Osman.

Clear shots in goal were rather few and between in an otherwise interesting and heated affair at Merseyside. Steven Pienaar scored a goal from a yard for Everton late on to put the Toffees one nil up and send their supporters in euphoria, only to be ruled offside for his trouble. So Chelsea have dropped their first away points and for once the Red side of Merseyside was having a quiet drink for their Everton neighbours, glad that their local rivals held the Londoners to a draw -  Liverpool remain to of the Premier League for the fourth week running.

Both Chelsea and Everton were lacking that clinical final touch in front of goal,  Everton actually being In a far worse position, going out for this match without a single pure striker, only  Tim Cahill to lead the line out of the entire squad.

Meanwhile for Chelsea, Nicolas Anelka had a rather quiet night and Joe Cole was way under standard, still trying to get up to full fitness, and perhaps he should not have been deployed at all in the first place.

Chelsea boss, Phil Scolari was enraged and gagged Chelsea after John Terry was sent off.
The red card effectively meant that Chelsea will miss on yet another golden opportunity to leapfrog Liverpool into top of the Premiership.

According to TV touchline reporter Dan Roan, Scolari turned on ref Phil Dowd in the Goodison tunnel and screamed in the face of the official: ÒWere you afraid of the crowd? Were you afraid?Ó

To make matters worse, Scolari was so enraged by DowdÕs display that he forbade his players and staff from giving interviews and talking to the media.

A Blues spokesman said for the BBC: ÒNone of the Chelsea management will be coming up to speak. They have a number of issues with a number of decisions during the game and feel itÕs better they donÕt say anything, rather than doing so and getting in trouble.Ó