Chelsea ended their home league campaign with a dour, unimpressive 2-2 draw against Newcastle United.
Brazilian Alex took advantage of a misjudgement from goalkeeper Tim Krul with seven minutes to go to give the Blues a 2-1 lead before an unmarked Steven Taylor headed home a 93rd minute equaliser.
The game exploded into life within 120 seconds when right-back Branislav Ivanovic bundled home the ball from close range after a flick-on by Fernando Torres from a Frank Lampard corner
But the Blues conceded a needless free-kick through skipper John Terry and the resultant blaster by Steven Taylor on 10 minutes was deflected into Petr Cech’s goal by Jonas Gutierrez to level the score.
Chelsea has suffered eight defeats this season – the worst in eight years.
It’s some of those avoidable defeats – notably at home against Sunderland 0-3 that have cost them the title in a mediocre season for the Premier League.
On 27 minutes, Danny Simpson tried his luck from 20 yards, but his clipped right-footer faded and sliced wide of Cech’s goal.
A minute later and an Ashley Cole byline cross was almost directed into his own goal by Taylor.
The remainder of the first half was a real snore-fest enlivened only by Ramires’s yellow card for kicking the ball away on the stroke of half-time after fouling Gutierrez.
Yossi Benayoun had a wild chip go sadly wide on 47 minutes.
Cole had a header on 54 minutes deflected for a corner; the resultant effort saw Torres see his right-footer charged away.
Ramires then followed up with a low-quality long-range effort that went well wide.
Lampard entered the ref’s book on 57 minutes when he cut down Joey Barton.
He was quickly followed by Ivanovic who hacked down Ferguson.
From the free-kick by Ryan Taylor, Cech was lively to the curler and smothered the ball at his near left post
Chelsea boss Carlo Ancelotti, maybe managing his final home game replaced Ramires, McEachran and Benayoun with Drogba Malouda and Essien in a triple substitution on 64 minutes.
So Chelsea had three top strikers Drogba, Torres and Nicolas Anelka on the field at the same time.
It’s a fair bet not all three will be at Stamford Bridge next season.
The on looking Roman Abramovich must have been as thoroughly bored at proceedings as the rest of the 41 731 crowd.
Newcastle boss Alan Pardew replaced Ferguson for Kazenga LuaLua with 20 minutes to go.
Chelsea all of a sudden seem to find a change of gear as they forced Newcastle further back towards their own goal.
Sammy Ameobi, 19, the younger brother of Shola entered the fray on 83 minutes but with 10 seconds of crossing the white line he saw Alex plough home a fierce header from eight yards out as Newcastle keeper Tim Krul misjudged the flight of the ball to give the home side a 2-1 lead.
But three minutes into injury time, centre-back Steven Taylor, unmarked nodded home from six yards
If Chelsea lose their final match – away to Everton next Sunday and Arsenal win both their remaining games, then the Blues will drop to third place and have to qualify for the Champions League next season rather than take the automatic position.
Chelsea: 4-3-2-1 formation:
1 Petr Cech
2 Branislav Ivanovic
33 Alex
26 John Terry (c)
3 Ashley Cole
7 Ramires
46 Josh McEachran
8 Frank Lampard
39 Nicolas Anelka
10 Yossi Benayoun
9 Fernando Torres
Subs: 22 Ross Turnbull, 19 Paulo Ferreira, 4 David Luiz, 12 John Mikel Obi, 5 Michael Essien, 15 Florent Malouda, 11 Didier Drogba.
Newcastle: 4-4-2 formation:
Krul; Simpson, S Taylor, Coloccini, José Enrique; Barton (c), Ferguson, R Taylor, Gutiérrez; Shola Ameobi, Lövenkrands.
Subs: Soderberg, Tavernier, Smith, Kazenga LuaLua, Sammy Ameobi, Kuqi, Ranger.
The referee is Lee Mason.