Chelsea’s Jose Bosingwa (top) challenges Tottenham Hotspurs’ Darren Bent during their Premier League match at Stamford Bridge on Sunday. (Reuters)

London: Darren Bent secured Tottenham’s first point of the season in a hard-fought 1-1 draw at Chelsea, and Liverpool’s perfect start to the season was ended by a 0-0 draw at Aston Villa. Juliano Belletti capped Chelsea’s early domination with a 28th-minute goal at Stamford Bridge. But Bent scored his first goal of the season in first-half injury time.

Chelsea and Liverpool had won their first two Premier League matches. But Tottenham manager Juande Ramos was under pressure after two losses and the uncertainty surrounding Dimitar Berbatov. “We needed something to kickstart the season to lift the season and give the players some confidence,” Ramos said through a translator.

Chelsea coach Luiz Felipe Scolari said his team’s offence struggled to break through when Spurs packed the midfield. “We need to respect Tottenham, they are a very good team and play very well and sometimes make it impossible to win,” Scolari said. “We had more chances but we made mistakes with the final shots. They put five, six, seven, eight, nine players in the back and it’s difficult to create.”

Bent operated as the lone striker — supported by Giovani dos Santos and Luka Modric — while Berbatov looks likely to wrap up his bitter move to Manchester United before the transfer window closes on Monday.

“I don’t know where he was, he wasn’t here,” Ramos said. “He wasn’t in the right state to play.”

Spurs completed the signing of Russia striker Roman Pavlyuchenko as Berbatov’s replacement over the weekend. While Tottenham’s creative midfielders inspired deep surges in an energetic London derby, it couldn’t mask the absence of a target man with Bent still unable to rediscover his prolific off-season form.

Scolari was also short on firepower, with Nicolas Anelka spearheading the attack as he waits for Robinho to possibly join from Real Madrid and Didier Drogba to recover from injury. Frank Lampard had a trio of chances in the first 12 minutes with an attempted chip over Tottenham goalkeeper Gomes the most elaborate.

The visitors retreated to soak up the pressure but Belletti’s pass got through to Anelka in the 26th. The France striker had time to deftly control the ball, but a less impressive second touch had too much height.

The Blues almost immediately tried again from 30 metres with Michael Essien hitting the crossbar. Ultimately, the goal came when the ball eventually went out for a corner. Bent unsuccessfully swung to clear Deco’s corner at the near post and it went off Belletti’s body and over the line.

“In the first half, maybe we were paying a little bit too much respect to our opponents, maybe even overawed by Chelsea and the stadium,” Ramos said. “But by the second half that was a thing of the past. Our performance in the second half pretty much deserved the point.”

Chelsea had threatened within two minutes of the restart. Ashley Cole sent a low cross from the left flank into the penalty area, but it had too much on it for Anelka. “This is why we made more mistakes. We need to try to work more with the ball,” Scolari said.

“We don’t have tall players for this.” Liverpool manager Rafa Benitez was taunted at Villa Park for his part in the failed pursuit of Villa captain Gareth Barry. It was a contest of defensive quality, with Liverpool midfielder Javier Mascherano seeing his advance stopped by Curtis Davies’s fine tackle.

Liverpool striker Fernando Torres pulled up sharply when chasing a pass and Benitez gave a debut to summer recruit David Ngog. Neat interplay by Barry and Ashley Young created the opening for the first half’s best goal scoring opportunity, but John Carew’s low, sidefooted effort from 10 metres lacked power and Pepe Reina was able to save.