SOCCER/Everton 1 Chelsea 1: In the old prizefighting adage, you box a slugger and you slug a boxer. Recognising that Jose Mourinho's Chelsea are acknowledged masters of their noble art, David Moyes sent out Everton with instructions to ruffle the visitors' composure.

His reward was a point, only his side's fourth of the season, after a furiously physical game from which Mourinho's side will count themselves lucky to have escaped with no more damage than the ending of their run of nine successive victories since the start of the season.

The contest between two intelligent young managers, situated at opposite ends of the Premiership, made for a compelling spectacle. Everton's muscularity set the tone of the first half, in which James Beattie's 36th-minute penalty gave them the lead. Chelsea's more cerebral approach dominated after the interval, with Frank Lampard's 25-yard drive providing the equaliser in the 50th minute.

Mourinho felt his side merited a victory. "Maybe I look a bit stupid," he said, "but I go home thinking that we won three points. We scored two good goals. Normally when you conceded one goal and score two, you win."

He was referring to Didier Drogba's emphatic strike after 62 minutes, disallowed by the linesman, who had spotted Eidur Gudjohnsen several yards offside inside the penalty area, clearly within the eyeline of Everton's goalkeeper.

Mourinho may have been the only spectator in the ground who did not immediately assume Gudjohnsen was interfering with play. "Even if the linesman has a doubt," he said, "he has to give the advantage to the attacking team. They also have instructions to wait until the last moment before putting up the flag. His went up like a rocket."

Moyes endorsed the referee's decision and felt his team could have been awarded a second penalty with eight minutes left, when Marcus Bent's right-wing cross rebounded from John Terry's superstructure. Whereas the referee, Mark Clattenburg, adjudged the ball to have hit the Chelsea captain's chest, Moyes thought it had struck Terry's arm.

But this was, in any case, a good day for Moyes, generally regarded as the Premiership's brightest young manager until Mourinho's arrival a year ago. Modelling his approach on the cold-eyed passion of Alex Ferguson, the Scot seemed destined for great things until Everton's disastrous start to this season took the bloom off his reputation.

Moyes had noted Chelsea's weakness against the high ball in the opening quarter of their Champions League match against Real Betis on Wednesday. For the visit of the league leaders he made four changes, notably bringing Beattie and Duncan Ferguson in to replace Bent and James McFadden up front. The return of Ferguson in particular provided a clear signal of Everton's intentions.

Anticipating his opposite number's thoughts, Mourinho took advantage of a training-ground injury to Ricardo Carvalho to bring Robert Huth into the centre of his defence.

If any doubts existed about the nature of the contest, they were answered in a five-minute period midway through the opening half. First Terry took a bang on the nose from the back of Beattie's head. Then Shaun Wright-Phillips needed treatment for a clash of heads with Nuno Valente. Finally, Beattie jumped into a challenge with Claude Makelele and caught the Frenchman on the back of the head with the sole of his boot.

Although Chelsea were putting together a selection of silky moves in the pauses between the outbreaks of trench warfare, Everton seemed to be holding the initiative. After 35 minutes Wright-Phillips paid a high price for his lack of physical presence when he lost possession to Tim Cahill inside his half and chased the Everton man back towards goal, ignoring the covering presence of Huth and comprehensively mistiming his tackle inside the area.

This was the first time in two years that a penalty had been awarded in a league match at Goodison and Beattie, with only one league goal since his transfer in January, had no hesitation in marching to the spot. An apparently nerveless strike went in off the underside of the bar.

Mourinho made no tactical changes at the interval but Chelsea came out in a more alert and aggressive frame of mind. The equaliser, nevertheless, came without warning.

Asier Del Horno's throw-in from the left, of questionable legitimacy, looked to be directed towards Makelele, but the proximity of Clattenburg seemed to confuse the issue and the ball ran to Lampard, who let it roll before unleashing a drive that dipped and swerved beyond Nigel Martyn's left hand. It was his 25th goal of the calendar year, for club and country, and on another day he might have had two or three more.

"I thought Frank Lampard was stunning," Moyes said with the generosity of a man seeing dark clouds disperse. "Every time he picked up the ball I thought he was going to be a threat. But Chelsea have got so many good players that you can't plug all the gaps. They're the best team in Europe and I have to give my players a lot of credit for making a game of it today. If we can maintain that level of performance, hopefully we'll be back."