PAUL KITSON'S injury time strike grabbed three precious points for West Ham to move them out of the drop zone.

The £2.3 million signing from Newcastle looked to have been deprived a win bonus when Mark Hughes came off the bench to thump home a header four minutes from time.

Kit son had earlier crashed home a great strike from the edge of the box as the Hammers did, everything in the second half that they failed to in the first.

That half had seen Gianluca Vialli mark his third start in 17 games by clinically finishing from Gianfranco Zola's 26th minute pass.

Vialli did miss three other chances and the interval introduction of the Portuguese Hugo Porfirio sparked the Hammers' fightback.

When Porfirio induced a clumsy tackle - although it was the linesman rather than the referee who saw the foul from Frank Sinclair, skipper Julian Dicks slammed home his sixth penalty of the season.

Iain Dowie somehow missed a sitter before Kitson raced on to his flick to thrash home his second in as many Upton Park games.

Hughes ninth of the campaign, a textbook back post header from Scott Minto's cross, appeared to have cost the home side dear.

But three minutes into time added on Dowie rose highest of all to knock Michael Hughes corner towards goal and the former Newcastle man stooped to conquer and start an East End knees up.

Yet such a fantastic climax could never have been contemplated at the break.

When the teams met at Stamford Bridge in December, Chelsea were two up inside 10 minutes, and they could easily have been again.

Despite four changes - Craig Burley, Erland Johnsen and debut making goalkeeper Nick Colgan coming in with Vialli - Chelsea settled the quicker, Dennis Wise firing at Ludek Miklosko before Vialli failed to find the power to match his run onto Paul Hughes pass.

Redknapp had nominally reverted to a back four, but Hughes, wary of Dan Petrescu, was playing far too deep and offering no support when the ball went up front.

There Dowie, with John Hartson still banned, was working, with Kitson, but apart from a hooked effort from the Ulsterman Colgan was untroubled.

It seemed only a matter of time before the jinking skills of Gullit's Italian strike pair bore fruit, and so it was.

Vialli was a fraction away from converting Burley's low cross but it was only delaying the inevitable, although Ian Bishop had to take responsibility for presenting the ball to Zola after a West Ham corner had left them caught upfield.

The goal should have been followed by a second five minutes later, Petrescu sliding forward but Vialli missing the ball with his right foot, and the Hammers" looked desperately short of options.

Burley nearly put through his own goal - Petrescu to the rescue but Chelsea were still firmly in the driving seat.

Zola was inches away with a cross shot, and Redknapp's interval swap, Porfirio and Danny Williamson replacing the errant Bishop and Rio Ferdinand, was no surprise.

The almost instant reward came with Porfirio's fall under Sinclair's challenge.

Dicks was in no mood to look the gift horse in the mouth, blasting home his eighth of the season, and the home crowd, which had booed the Hammers off at the break, was suddenly singing a different tune.