LONDON, Jan 1: Chelsea overcame the absence of a host of big names to come from behind and beat local rivals Fulham 2-1 away in Tuesday’s Premier League lunchtime kickoff.

Fulham, under new manager Roy Hodgson for the first time, led with a 10th-minute Danny Murphy penalty but Chelsea levelled with a 54th-minute Salomon Kalou header and won the match with a Michael Ballack penalty eight minutes later.

Chelsea remain third on 44 points, one behind Manchester United, who play Birmingham City at Old Trafford later on Tuesday, and three behind Arsenal, who host West Ham United.

A year ago Chelsea drew with Aston Villa and Fulham over the Christmas period to lose touch at the top. After their 4-4 home draw on Dec 26 with Villa it looked like the situation might repeat itself.

Fulham, who had won only two league games previously and began the day second-last, went ahead from the spot after Moritz Volz was tripped by Joe Cole and had little trouble keeping their local rivals at bay.

All season Fulham have performed well in the first half and of the 37 goals they have conceded, 30 have come in the second half.

So, it was no surprise that they again lost their way as halftime Chelsea substitute John Obi Mikel injected some forward power for Avram Grant’s team.

Chelsea duly equalised in the 54th minute when Alex nodded a deep corner back across goal for Kalou to head in from close range.

They took the lead eight minutes later when Clint Dempsey held back Ballack as he sought to reach a free kick and the German dispatched the resulting penalty.

By then it was one-way traffic and Ballack almost got a third when he curved a free kick just wide while late substitute Claudio Pizarro should have done better with a close-range volley, though it was his first touch.—Reuters