Chelsea, who could only draw 1-1, are now five points behind Manchester United at the top of the English Premier League table.

Unless they win against Everton tomorrow (Friday morning, Singapore time) Chelsea will have an uphill task bagging the championship.

Even Blues boss Avram Grant admitted after the deflating draw that winning at Goodison Park is vital.

He said: 'If not, it will be very difficult. We're still in it and will keep on fighting.

'We need one more bad result from United, but the draw did not help us.

'The players still believe they can do it and we won't stop. We need to win the games against Everton and United and need a bad result from them.'

With four games left, United clearly have the Premier League trophy within grabbing range.

Alex Ferguson's side can even afford to lose at Stamford Bridge on April 26 and still coast to their second successive title.

Their cause was helped to a large extent by Chelsea's failure to kill off the game after taking the lead in the 54th minute through Michael Essien's strike, reported The Telegraph.

Heskey, playing his 400th Premier League game, struck in the 92nd minute to jeopardise Chelsea's title chances.

Grant was also left to curse the absence of striker Didier Drogba and midfielder Frank Lampard.

The Ivorian is believed to have suffered a recurrence of his knee injury, while Lampard pulled out minutes before the match to attend to his seriously ill mother.

The Israeli, breaking the cardinal end-of-season rule of always playing your best XI, omitted seasoned defenders Ricardo Carvalho and Ashley Cole, and kept livewire midfielder Joe Cole on the bench for 45 minutes.

The team sheet was clearly written with Everton in mind, and Wigan were delighted.

Manager Steve Bruce, who received a call from his former boss Ferguson before the match, sent in attacker after attacker and it paid off with the equaliser.

Only when Cole arrived did Chelsea perk up. He orchestrated the move that led to Essien scoring.

Bruce told Sky Sports: 'It helped that their manager made changes. You saw what Cole did in 20 minutes in the second half. He had more impact than the rest of the team in the whole of the first half.'

Grant justified his team selection by saying: 'I change players all the time, as we're at the end of the season with many games and the team are playing more than they used to.

'I tried to keep them fresh as we have a big squad. It's not the first time we have played with this team.

'The second half was one of our best performances of the season. We created chances every three or four minutes and their goalkeeper gave an excellent performance.

'When you play good football, you need to score the second goal. If we had used 10 per cent of the chances, we would have won 3-0 or 4-0.'

But the Chelsea fans were not convinced. They angrily turned on their manager at the final whistle, having already booed the team off after the goalless first half, observed The Times.

Cries of 'You don't know what you're doing' reverberated around Stamford Bridge, and Grant cut a dejected figure as he walked down the tunnel.

Having squandered Jose Mourinho's inheritance of the League Cup and the FA Cup last season, the Israeli now faces mission impossible in the Premier League.

After the embarrassing draw against Wigan, his stock is at an all-time low.

Barcelona coach Frank Rikjaard was yesterday installed as the favourite to succeed Grant in the close season.

The Dutchman can work with the staff at Stamford Bridge as he knows them well. Among them are compatriots Henk ten Cate (assistant coach) and Frank Arnesen (chief scout).

Grant, of course, can rescue his season with success in the Champions League. But the fans clearly want him to deliver the Premier League trophy too.

With Chelsea looking stale, Ferguson's side could well seal the title at Stamford Bridge on April 26 - which would be the ultimate indignity for Grant.