Chelsea's home blues surfaced again on Saturday when they were held 0-0 at home by Hull City to slip to fourth place in the Premier League.
The Londoners, once virtually impregnable at Stamford Bridge, have dropped 16 points at home in the league this season and slipped to fourth place after Aston Villa continued their incredible away form.
Goals from James Milner and Gabriel Agbonlahor in each half earned Villa a 2-0 win at Blackburn Rovers, a club record seventh consecutive away league victory.
Villa moved level on 51 points with Liverpool and just two points behind leaders Manchester United who have two games in hand. Liverpool could go top later with victory at Portsmouth with United playing on Sunday at West Ham United.
Brazilian striker Jo made an impressive debut for Everton, earning a penalty and scoring a goal in 3-0 defeat of Bolton Wanderers at Goodison Park.
Goalkeeper Shay Given, another debutant, was also impressive in Manchester City's 1-0 home defeat of Middlesbrough who have now gone 13 matches without a win.
Newcastle United eased their relegation fears with a 3-2 win at bottom club West Bromwich Albion and Stoke City's 2-0 defeat at Sunderland meant the three clubs occupying the relegation places all lost.
Wigan Athletic and Fulham played out a 0-0 draw.
Chelsea left the pitch to the sound of booing after a draw that followed last week's damaging 2-0 defeat at Liverpool.
One large banner unveiled by fans inside the stadium even called for Brazilian manager Luiz Felipe Scolari to be sacked.
Winger Ricardo Quaresma was handed his debut by Scolari but the Portuguese, on loan from Inter Milan, made little impact before being substituted and replaced by Didier Drogba.
Skipper John Terry missed an open goal early on for Chelsea and Michael Ballack struck the woodwork with a free kick but Hull, who have slid down the table in recent weeks, were well worth their draw and could even have grabbed a winner.
Brazilian Geovanni narrowly missed with a curling free kick and midfielder Dean Marney shot agonisingly across the face of goal for the visitors after the break.
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