A John Terry header cancelled out Gylfi Sigurdsson's opener at White Hart Lane as Tottenham Hotspur played out a 1-1 draw with 10-man Chelsea in the Premier League.
After a pacy opening to the match, Chelsea had the first half chance of the afternoon when Frank Lampard sent a long pass over to Eden Hazard, but the Belgian failed to control the ball and the chance went begging.
Spurs' first effort came through Jan Vertonghen, who managed to get his head to Christian Eriksen's cross but saw the ball fly across goal.
The home fans did not have long to wait for the first goal, however. After build-up play from Roberto Soldado and Eriksen, Sigurdsson skipped past a challenge from Terry before beating Petr Cech in the Chelsea goal.
It was nearly 2-0 to Andre Villas-Boas's side, but after Andros Townsend had found Eriksen, the Dutchman's pass was cleared by Branislav Ivanovic with Paulinho lurking for a tap-in.
Spurs continued to create the better chances, although on this occasion Kyle Naughton's right-foot shot was comfortably saved by Cech.
Paulinho came close to adding to the lead, but after seeing his effort beat Cech, it came back off the post.
Chelsea could have equalised just after the restart, but Oscar shot wide after Torres had made his way to the byline and crossed the ball.
Torres was heavily involved and after picking up a booking for tripping Vertonghen and then facing up to the Spurs defender, he turned Michael Dawson but could not beat Hugo Lloris.
However, manager Jose Mourinho saw his team level the match through Terry's header from a Juan Mata free kick.
Torres, who had been influential in the second period, was then sent off after he was adjudged to have fouled Vertonghen.
Soon after a chance fell to Jermain Defoe, but he scuffed his curling effort and Cech collected easily.
Spurs were inches away from grabbing the win but Sigurdsson's shot flew past Cech's post.
Gary Peters
