John Terry is still in credit thanks to Clinton art of survival

JT, as you will have read, apparently told this fake businessman that he meant to donate his cut of £8,000 to a children's charity, as in the fullness of time he doubtless will.

Yet there is so much more to admire about the guy than his philanthropic nature. Where most of us would have thrown a sickie and hidden under the duvet with our friend Johnny Walker, he not only turned up for this top versus second bottom, stinking rich versus richly skint encounter at Upton Park, but within four minutes made a glorious last-gasp tackle to deny West Ham a scoring chance.

Clearly JT has Bill Clinton's knack for "compartmentalising" his problems, and it does him credit.

This is a knack the Hammers are developing themselves and, since only the most Scrooge-like of neutrals could enjoy the sight of them mired in a relegation dogfight, it was good to see Gianfranco Zola's team shrugging off the drama of David Sullivan's thwarted takeover bid to draw a game they just about deserved to win.

Zola's masterplan, predictably, was to swap roles, allowing the visitors to dominate possession in the knowledge that Chelsea, who lack the guile to pick holes in a disciplined mass defence, are most effective when allowed to counter-attack. The plan worked pretty well, and might have worked beautifully but for two atrocious penalty decisions.

The one referee Mike Dean got right was reward for West Ham's application. For half an hour they made this ugly but intriguing game as disjointed as possible, harrying Chelsea relentlessly and denying them any flow, before posing an attacking force themselves. The first half was dribbling to a conclusion when Ashley Cole celebrated his 29th birthday with a wretched challenge on Jack Collison (any repeat of that in South Africa, old chap, and even Cheryl won't stick around for your 30th). Alessandro Diamanti beat Petr Cech from the spot, and a shock to match Fulham's pulverising of Manchester United seemed a possibility.

The anticipated cavalry charge from Chelsea never came. A largely anonymous Didier Drogba almost equalised with an audacious, dipping half-volley from an unlikely angle but, denied time and space, the midfield continued to stutter alarmingly. Michael Ballack contributed about as much as my mother, Frank Lampard looked in need of Viagra (all breathless effort, no penetration) and Joe Cole looked a shadow of himself once again.

Their undeserved equaliser was just the sort of calumny relegation-threatened sides tend to suffer. Matthew Upson's sublimely timed challenge on substitute Daniel Sturridge was rewarded with the raising of the linesman's flag, and after Mr Dean had tiresomely hogged centre stage by twice making Lampard retake the penalty because of encroachment by other players, his third successful attempt was graciously allowed to stand.

At this point, logic insisted there was only one winner, but curiously the goal failed to provide any momentum. In fact, had Mr Dean noticed Ricardo Carvalho launch himself into Guillermo Franco's back from a corner - a manoeuvre I haven't seen excuted so perfectly since the heyday of the late Mick McManus - that much discussed vulnerabilty from set-pieces would have been punished with a second Hammers penalty. Instead, it was Chelsea who almost nicked it when a sharp save on the stretch from Robert Green prevented substitute Yuri Zhirkov marking his Premier League debut with the winner.

So it ended with the Hammers - hugely impressive despite the grievous absence of Carlton Cole - encouraged that, for all their financial woes, they have enough wherewithal to survive in this league; and Chelsea relieved to extend their lead at the top to four points.

They will seldom play worse. However, the title remains theirs for the taking, and take it I have no doubt they will, but far better to win it through their own virtues than by relying on United's burgeoning inadequacies.

For John Terry there was an added indignity he didn't strictly need. He was booked late on for giving Julien Faubert a guided tour of his studs, and he never charged the Frenchman so much as a children's charity-destined penny piece.