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It’s something that happens, especially in England, because the competition’s so tight.”Wednesday illustrate that point. Unable to score a goal against the likes of Southampton and Coventry, they have now beaten Arsenal and Manchester United, and drawn at Stamford Bridge on another afternoon that confounded expectation from the start.Vialli began it by naming an unchanged team for the only time since his opening two matches in charge last February. As if that was not enough of a shock, Andy Booth should have scored for the visitors within 20 seconds.Then Wednesday’s Tango Man, naked to the waist as ever, had just begun a chant of “By far the greatest team the world has ever seen” when Pavel Srnicek obligingly tipped a cross from Celestine Babayaro on to Gianfranco Zola’s head for the opening goal. Later, as another Yorkshire foghorn was urging the Wednesday manager “Sell Booth, Wilson, do your job,” the striker in question smartly beat Ed de Goey to Niclas Alexandersson’s low cross to equalise.Dominant for an hour, Chelsea had lost their way and might have conceded a penalty when Marcel Desailly handled. Only Zola remained a threat, far more so than his partner Tore Andre Flo, who did not enhance his case for a regular place with this display. It is inconceivable that Vialli will keep an unchanged side very often during December, a month in which, the foreign players might have been led to believe, English football slackens off a little before the hectic holiday period.

Well, just the eight games this month, chaps, starting with Wimbledon in the Worthington Cup tomorrow, then Aston Villa, Manchester United (twice) and Tottenham, among others.Despite setting a club record with 19 unbeaten matches, Chelsea have stayed “in the shade”, as Vialli put it, partly because Villa have been enjoying a place in the sun. The immminence of re-arranged midweek matches against the leaders and then United will change all that, and possibly change the shape of things at the top of the table as well. It will be difficult for the Village People to remain low-profile much longer.Goals: Zola (25) 1-0; Booth (67) 1-1.Chelsea (4-4-2): De Goey; Ferrer, Leboeuf, Desailly, Le Saux; Goldbaek (Petrescu, 77), Di Matteo (Morris, 77), Poyet, Babayaro; Flo, Zola. Substitutes not used: Duberry, Nicholls, Hitchcock (gk).Sheffield Wednesday (4-4-1-1): Srnicek; Atherton, Thome, Walker, Hinchcliffe; Alexandersson, Sonner (Magilton, 86), Jonk, Rudi; Carbone; Booth (Humphreys, 89).

Substitutes not used: Briscoe, Stefanovic, Clarke (gk).Referee: N Barry (Scunthorpe).Bookings: Chelsea: Leboeuf, Desailly. Sheffield Wednesday: Sonner, Booth.Man of the match: Zola.Attendance: 34,451.. A WRETCHED eight days for Blackburn Rovers culminated in defeat at Anfield yesterday when even the normal antidote to gloom, the appointment of Tony Parkes as caretaker manager, did not halt the spiral downwards. When even this lucky talisman fails to work, you know things are getting serious. This is the fourth occasion that Parkes has moved into the Ewood Park manager’s office and on the last occasion, two years ago, his first win was against Liverpool. Unfortunately for him, there was no repeat of that transformation yesterday as goals from Paul Ince and Michael Owen condemned Rovers to their 10th defeat in 15 League matches.

They are still bottom of the Premiership and, worryingly, a gap of six points has opened between themselves and the positions of safety.
They did not play badly and indeed their reserves of spirit were commendable given that they lost their manager, Roy Hodgson, the previous weekend and are still handicapped by a grievous injury list but the results refuse to come. Instead it was Liverpool, no strangers to disappointment themselves this season, who were breathing easier last night.”It’s difficult to say too much to the players,” Parkes said, “because we lost but when went 2-0 down I thought it was going to be four or five. But we dug in and didn’t crumble which is a great credit to them. I lost my first match when I was in charge last time so I’m not worrying yet.”Liverpool began the match as crisply as the late afternoon air and within six minutes John Filan had saved Patrik Berger’s volley and then had been relieved that Jamie Redknapp’s 25-yard shot had flown close but wide. Anfield luxuriated in this revisit of past glory but the mood soon changed when this bright opening faded to reveal Liverpool at their hesitant and inaccurate worst and soon the home crowd was barracking its own players.Of course, the home team contributed to the feeling of unease but Blackburn were playing their part, too. Far from being cowed by recent events, they attacked with vigour. Kevin Gallacher’s free-kick hit Ince and deflected just wide, Nathan Blake was too high with a shot and Damien Johnson’s header flashed just over and if anyone appeared likely to score it was the visitors.