Nigerian Celestine Babayaro rescued a point for Chelsea in a fiercely competitive battle at Upton Park.

John Roeder: Ruddock gave West Ham the perfect start

He forced the ball home from the close range in the 76th minute to deny The Hammers a victory which would have lifted them into the top five in the Premiership table.

Defender Neil Ruddock gave the home side an early lead but the first half was overshadowed by an injury to Chelsea's Italian centre forward Pierluigi Casiraghi.

He went down with an apparently serious knee injury after stretching to reach a cross - bad news for player-boss Gianluca Vialli just two days after the departure of Brian Laudrup - and was later taken to hospital for a scan.

"We hope Gigi's injury is not serious but we don't know yet. He was in a lot of pain," said Vialli.

Casiraghi in agony

Chelsea began with Bernard Lambourde partnering Marcel Desailly in central defence with Franck Leboeuf and Michael Duberry unavailable. West Ham had problems of their own and harry Redknapp was forced to employ Marc keller in an unfamiliar wing-back role.

But the visitors found themselves behind after only four minutes when Ruddock drove a 20-yard shot into the corner after Babayaro had conceded a free-kick by fouling Paul Kitson.

Frank Lampard and Kitson went close as West Ham pressed for a second, but Casiraghi's injury brought a temporary halt to the flow of the contest.

There was a lengthy delay before he was finally stretchered off, with Tore Andre Flo taking over up front.

Frank Lampard robs Tore Andre Flo

Chelsea brought on Dan Petrescu in place of Roberto di Matteo at half-time and looked far more dangerous with Flo, Gianfranco Zola and Gustavo Poyet all threatening an equaliser.

Rio Ferdinand and Ian Pearce fought hard to keep Chelsea at bay but they were grateful to 'keeper Shaka Hislop for a superb one-handed save from another Flo effort.

The pressure finally told when Babayaro nodded the loose ball into the net after a Mark Nicholls header had been cleared off the line.

West Ham had been outplayed for most of the second period but almost snatched the points late on when Israeli midfielder Eyal Berkovic fired in a shot which struck the inside of the post but rebounded to safety.

"We carved them open in the first 15 minutes and could have been two or three up but they came back very well and have a lot of quality players. I thought we had weathered the storm but it was not to be," said home boss Redknapp.

West Ham: Hislop, Ruddock, Ferdinand, Pearce, Lomas, Lampard, Sinclair, Keller, Berkovic, Kitson, Wright. Subs: Sealey, Omoyimni, Breacker, Abou, Potts.

Chelsea: De Goey, Babayaro, Desailly, Poyet, Casiraghi, Wise, Le Saux, Di Matteo, Ferrer, Lambourde, Zola. Subs: Hitchcock, Petrescu, Flo, Nicholls, Terry.