Debutant Jermaine Defoe made sure his start at Fratton Park was memorable for him as well as thousands of Pompey fans as he equalized in the 64th minute to prevent Chelsea from recording a record-breaking tenth successive win in live Premiership this season.

In an earlier game, Portsmouth had finally broken the home jinx of going scoreless thanks to a hat trick from Benjani Mwaruwari. However the Zimbabwean striker was involved in a tug of war between Portsmouth and Manchester City and Defoe seized his moment in a glorious fashion.

The game began on a sedate pace and it was former Chelsea midfielder Lassana Diarra, who initiated some penetrating attacks against Chelsea. On 5 minutes he managed to send through a fine pass to another debutant Milan Baros, but the Czech Republic striker only managed to sky his effort.

On the other end Michael Ballack had a fine chance from about 20 yards out, but even he was unable to direct his shot. Niko Kranjcar's shot went wide, while Diarra managed to test goalkeeper Petr Cech with a drilled shot as Pompey mounted a series of sustained attacks on the Chelsea goal.

Late in the first half, Chelsea were lucky when Pamarot's header hit the left goal post before going out. After the break, Defoe showed why Harry Redknapp brought him to Porstmouth by weaving his way out of three challenges before Shaun Wright-Phillips got his foot in.

Against the run of play, Chelsea took the lead when Nicolas Anelka netted Joe Cole's fantastic pass on 55 minutes. However Pompey hit back on 64 minutes as David James sent a long clearance, which was headed into Defoe's path by Baros, who put it away in an effortless manner to bring the roof down at Fratton Park.

Late on both teams tried to get the winner with Hreidarsson and Juliano Belletti coming close, but neither side could get the winner and had to be satisfied with one point each.