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By Owen Phillips
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 A relieved Lampard celebrates his last-gasp winner
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Frank Lampard's last-gasp header broke Wigan hearts to send Chelsea second in the Premier League table and keep alive their lingering title chances.
Oliver Kapo seemed to have earned the visitors a point with a late goal of his own, turning in Maynor Figueroa's teasing cross with eight minutes to go.
But with full-time almost up Lampard looped a header past Chris Kirkland.
John Terry's spectacular mid-air volley had put the Londoners ahead despite Wigan dominating the early exchanges.
Wigan boss Steve Bruce side will wonder how they failed to take something from a game after a fine opening 20 minutes in which they were much the better side.
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606: DEBATE
deadeye01
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The Latics harassed and harangued a hassled-looking home side at every move and they had three glorious chances to go ahead.
Blues keeper Petr Cech made a wonderful save to deny Paul Scharner who ran through unopposed after a sweeping counter-attack involving Mario Melchiot and Amr Zaki.
A scrambling Ashley Cole then did well to clear Titus Bramble's towering header off the line.
Terry then somehow managed to clear the follow-up effort from Charles N'Zogbia as he raced back towards his own goal.
Such was Wigan's early threat that both Terry and Alex were also cautioned in those opening 20 minutes.
But with a Wigan goal seemingly inevitable, suddenly Chelsea, who have yet to lose to Wigan in eight Premier League matches, came to life.
 Mikel (l) races to congratulate skipper Terry on his superb volleyed opener
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Didier Drogba fizzed a shot across goal and moments later Jon Mikel Obi had a fierce 20-yard effort tipped over by Kirkland.
And with the Blues suddenly looking like the side that so impressed in the opening quarter against Juventus in midweek, Terry put them ahead with a spectacular scissor-kick volley.
The England skipper readjusted his feet and leapt in the air to send a crisp strike past the unfortunate Kirkland via a crucial deflection off Emmerson Boyce.
Terry's fellow centre-half Alex then saw his close-range strike blocked by Kirkland.
Another opportunity fell to Lampard, whose attempted dinked finish was well blocked by the excellent Kirkland.
Lampard then shot wastefully at Kirkland and Terry fired well wide from 12 yards.
The second half promised more of the same as Bramble acrobatically cleared Drogba's goalbound effort after a delightful reverse pass from Lampard.
But Chelsea's failure to kill teams off, which has seen them score just 11 goals in their last 10 league matches, almost came back to haunt them.
Scharner sent a flying header well over the bar and Zaki curled a chance wide from 20 yards.
And with Chelsea starting to get twitchy, Wigan capitalised.
Maynor Figueroa tricked his way down the left flank and his low cross was forced home at the near post by Kapo despite Cech's best efforts.
But with the game in injury-time, a long ball into the box was flicked on by Michael Ballack and Lampard leapt above Melchiot to nod the winner and close the gap on leaders Manchester United to seven points.
Chelsea: Cech, Mancienne (Quaresma 81), Alex, Terry, Ashley Cole, Ballack, Mikel, Lampard, Kalou (Belletti 75), Anelka, Drogba.
Subs Not Used: Hilario, Ivanovic, Di Santo, Malouda, Ferreira.
Booked: Alex, Terry, Mancienne.
Goals: Terry 25, Lampard 90.
Wigan: Kirkland, Melchiot, Bramble, Boyce, Figueroa, Cattermole (Rodallega 69), Brown, Scharner, Kapo, Zaki (Sibierski 89), N'Zogbia.
Subs Not Used: Kingson, Edman, Kupisz, Routledge, Holt.
Booked: N'Zogbia, Cattermole.
Goals: Kapo 82.
Att: 40,714.
Ref: Lee Probert (Wiltshire).
BBC Sport Player Rater man of the match: Chelsea's John Terry 8.53 (on 90 minutes).
Please note that you can still give the players marks out of 10 on BBC Sport's Player Rater after the match has finished.
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