Queens Park Rangers 1-0 Chelsea

Heidar Helguson scored the only goal for QPR in a fiery West London derby in which Chelsea were reduced to nine men before half-time.

His strike helped Neil Warnock's men to bag their first home win of the season but they were made to work for it by the visitors who had three major decisions go against them in the opening 45 minute. The first came in the tenth minutes when Helguson won a penalty which he then converted after David Luiz needlessly brought down the Icelandic striker. Helguson held his nerve to score the spot-kick after having to fight off appeals from team-mate Adel Taarabt to take it instead. It was a bright start from the home side, urged on by their supporters who had not seen Chelsea play a competitive game at Loftus Road since 1996, and things got better for the Hoops just past the half hour mark when Jose Bosingwa was given his marching orders. A tussle between the Portuguese right-back and Shaun Wright-Phillips on the edge of the box resulted in the latter going down and despite having John Terry in cover, Chris Foy sent Bosingwa for an early shower. Chelsea continued to press after the dismissal with Raul Meireles firing wide from 20-yards before a moment of stupidity from Didier Drogba reduced their numbers to nine. The Ivorian, who matched Gianfranco Zola's 313 appearances in the game, gave the referee no choice as he went in two-footed on Adel Taarabt. It was a catastrophic first-half but no-one could have predicted the fight Chelsea would put up after the break. Any two-man advantage was waved off by the visitors and they arguably deserved something from the game. Nicolas Anelka came closest to equalising for Andre Villas-Boas' side, who also had numerous penalty appeals turned down, when his glancing header flew straight into the hands of Paddy Kenny from six-yards. The French forward also set up David Luiz late on and his overhead-kick bounced off Frank Lampard in front of the QPR goal before looping onto the roof of the net. Heidar Helguson could have wrapped up the points for Rangers when he steered Joey Barton's free-kick over the bar but his 10th minutes spot-kick was enough to secure victory in the end. Rangers in principle should have won more comfortably but their fans will still celebrate beating their arch rivals who lost touch on Manchester City at the top of the league.