Chelsea floored by Tel boy

Venables turns tide as midwinter gets bleaker for Tigana and Megson

"You win nothing with kids" – except perhaps a reprieve. As the Christmas presents were unwrapped, Leeds United were still smarting from a late equaliser that deprived them of victory over Southampton, and the fates seemed to be conspiring against Terry Venables. Another new year, another new job needed, it seemed.

Enter James Milner. On Boxing Day, he became the youngest Premiership goalscorer at 16 years and 357 days to inspire a come-from-behind victory at Sunderland. Then yesterday he was at it again, scoring a goal to remember in a 2-0 home victory over Chelsea. Who even whispered the word "relegation"?

It was a strange day all round at Elland Road. Jonathan Woodgate scored his first goal for two years to set Chelsea on the path to their first defeat in 12 Premiership games, and as Leeds walked off victorious a grey-looking man of nearly 60 turned back into a chirpy cockney, a cheeky chappie. Lor'-luv-a-duck! "We played some good football, playing as a unit, and there's a nice little story about a very special young man," Venables said. Himself? Perhaps not.

There was even a little for those other suffering east Londoners, West Ham, to smile about. The Hammers may still be bottom, but at least they picked up another point, courtesy of a late equaliser by Jermaine Defoe that earned them a 2-2 draw at Blackburn Rovers. David James had let Damien Duff's early opener go through him, but the least of West Ham's worries would have been that Defoe's goal took the attention away from Andy Cole, who in putting Rovers back ahead after Martin Taylor's own goal became only the second player, after Alan Shearer, to score 150 goals in the Premiership.

Had Charlton Athletic beaten West Bromwich by more than 1-0, West Ham would have had even more to celebrate, as they would have crept off the bottom of the table. Glenn Roeder might even have been allowed to smile in public again.

But the frowns definitely belonged elsewhere yesterday. Aside from West Bromwich's manager, Gary Megson, suffering as his side strained every sinew as ever but left The Valley empty-handed, Sunderland's Howard Wilkinson saw his charges bounce back straight away from yet another James Beattie goal for Southampton at St Mary's, only to be beaten at the last by Jo Tessem's strike.

With Bolton defying the nation's other favourite teenager, Wayne Rooney, at Goodison Park to earn a goalless draw against Everton and put a sliver of daylight between themselves and the relegation places, a new team entered the scrap to avoid the drop. Fulham's 1-0 home defeat by Manchester City, combined with victory for Aston Villa over Middlesbrough by the same scoreline, left the west London side in danger.

It was a case of one Frenchman doing the dirty on another, Nicolas Anelka's 84th-minute goal for City stepping up the pressure on Fulham's manager, Jean Tigana. In the 1980s in France's midfield, Tigana seemed to be able to extricate himself from difficulty with effortless ease. The problems mounting for him with the Loftus Road lodgers might prove a little trickier. Rumblings have already been afoot over Steve Marlet's £11.5 million transfer and the club's chairman, Mohamed al Fayed, wanting a better return on his £50m investment. Relegation is not on the shopping list.