Cresswell could have won it for the home side six minutes from the end but he hesitated, allowing Micah Hyde to dispossess him despite having the goal at his mercy after Chamberlain had pushed out Fuller's stinging shot.
Carew's power up front had looked the likeliest route to success for Villa with Sylvain Distin and Jagielka struggling to dispossess the targetman, but it was his strike partner who levelled with a deft flick from Milner's pinpoint cross.
Drogba, such a formidable force when his tail is up, still looked short of his best in the first half, when his hesitancy in front of goal allowed first Michel Salgado and then Gael Givet to dispossess him with saving tackles.