London  - Liverpool's title hopes suffered another blow on Wednesday when they were held to a 1-1 draw at Wigan Athletic, while Chelsea leapfrogged them into second place in the English Premier League.

A late penalty by debutant Mido gave Wigan a share of the points at the JJB Stadium after Yossi Benayoun had fired Liverpool ahead on 41 minutes.

Two second-half goals from Salomon Kalou sealed Chelsea's 2-0 win over Middlesbrough, lifting them above Liverpool on goal difference, two points behind leaders Manchester United.

Arsenal lost more ground after they were held 1-1 at Everton, while Manchester City and West Ham United both earned victories.

Chelsea and Liverpool play each other at Anfield this Sunday and after Wednesday's results, Rafael Benitez's men will need to win that match to get their title challenge back on track.

Benayoun's finish from an acute angle looked to be enough for Liverpool but they could not find a second goal to finish Wigan off.

A foul by Lucas Leiva on Jason Koumas gave Wigan a penalty seven minutes from the end and Mido, on his debut, converted from the spot.

And Wigan almost won it in injury time when new signing Hugo Rodallega smashed a free-kick onto the crossbar in injury time, but the two sides had to settle for a point.

"We have lost two points," a disappointed Benitez said. "We were much better in the first half. We had control of the game. We didn't kill the game."

"The second half was a crazy game and when it is a crazy game you cannot control things.

"When you are top of the table you know that every single game is really important, so when you lose two points you have to be disappointed. But we have an important game on Sunday (against Chelsea) and if we play like we played in the first half we can beat anyone.

"All the games will be important until the end of the season. It depends on the other teams too but we have to try to play well and try to win."

Chelsea were frustrated for the best part of an hour at Stamford Bridge as Middlesbrough matched them but Kalou broke the deadlock on 58 minutes.

The forward then made sure of the points nine minutes from time when he headed Frank Lampard's corner into the net.

Robin van Persie scored a last-gasp equaliser as Arsenal salvaged a point with a 1-1 draw at Everton, for whom Tim Cahill had scored the opening goal.

Craig Bellamy scored on his debut for Manchester City as they beat Newcastle United 2-1 to move up to ninth, while Carlton Cole was on the scoresheet again as West Ham beat Hull City 2-0.

Blackburn Rovers drew 2-2 with Bolton Wanderers in the night's other game, thanks to a late equaliser from Benni McCarthy. (dpa)