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A late Frank Lampard winner continued Guus Hiddink's perfect start as Chelsea manager with a 2-1 victory over Wigan at Stamford Bridge.

John Terry's flamboyant volley on 25 minutes opened the scoring, but Wigan's tireless efforts to come back at their hosts were rewarded when Olivier Kapo equalised on 82 minutes.

The goal looked to have secured a hard-fought point for Wigan until Lampard's looping injury-time header gave the points to the home side.

The game started cagily, with both sides keeping things tight and no clear-cut chances falling to either team.

That soon changed, however, as Chelsea built a good attacking move on 18 minutes that culminated in Nicolas Anelka drawing a good save from Chris Kirkland in the Wigan goal.

Thinking quickly, Kirkland got a counter-attack going with his well-targeted clearance, and before they knew it Wigan had Paul Scharner clear through on Petr Cech.

Sadly for the visitors, Scharner wasted the golden chance with a pulled shot that went wide left, perhaps betraying a little rustiness after his absence from the team through illness.

Three minutes later, however, Wigan looked to put things right as Titus Bramble got on the end of a corner and headed strongly past Cech - only for Ashley Cole to clear the ball off the line. Lee Cattermole pounced on the rebound but the ball was somehow kept out once more, this time Terry the man responsible.

Terry's heroics continued apace: on the stroke of 25 minutes he latched on to Bramble's loose headed clearance from a corner, hitting a spectacular volley which confirmed his status as Chelsea's highest-scoring defender.

The goal both relaxed and galvanised Chelsea, and they began to dominate the match after having looked so vulnerable beforehand. Yet for all their chances, Lampard's over-curled long-range effort on 37 minutes was as close as they got to increasing the lead.

Chelsea started the second half as they had finished the first, and on 51 minutes looked as if they had broken through as Lampard's brilliant angled through-pass to Didier Drogba gave the Ivory Coast striker a perfect chance to score.

Yet while Drogba beat Kirkland and found the target, his celebrations were prevented by the flying Bramble, scorching in across the six-yard box and clearing the ball off the line.

Having survived the chance Wigan fought back in to the game, and a goalmouth scramble on 65 minutes almost saw Cattermole weave a long, powerful drive through the mass of players in the six-yard box.

Chelsea continued to push hard for the goal which would make the game safe, but Wigan kept up their counter-attacking pressure as well and were rewarded when Kapo slid in at the near post on 82 minutes to put Maynor Figueroa's cross in to the net.

The strike seemed to have secured a point for the visitors, with the tireless defending of Bramble and Emmerson Boyce seemingly equal to Chelsea's attacks.

But then, a minute in to injury time, Michael Ballack's long ball from the half-way line was poorly headed by Boyce, allowing Lampard to head over Kirkland and in to the Wigan net.

It was a crushing blow to Wigan, who seemed to have done enough to take something away from Stamford Bridge - but Hiddink's Chelsea retain their perfect record and go second in the Premier League ahead of Liverpool.

Toby Keel / Eurosport