Kai Havertz rose above the mediocrity to save the memorial service for Chelsea legend Gianluca Vialli turning into a requiem to manager Graham Potter's reign.
Until the German enigma's header after 64 minutes delivered only their second Premier League win since October, the Blues were laboured and bland. Their 12th consecutive win against Palace lifts the pressure on Potter, but he has still to solve the riddle of how a surfeit of attacking players struggle to find a cutting edge between them.
As a eulogy to Vialli, who died aged 58 earlier this month, this was mid-table stodge more than a celebratory feast. Before kick-off a parade of club legends, including John Terry, Mark Hughes, Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink and Graeme Le Saux – Chris Sutton was there, too – led the tributes to their former team-mate, manager and shining light.
But then the football started – and the bland played on.
Vialli was a class act as well as a world-class footballer. Before his first game as Chelsea manager, he toasted his players with a nip of champagne in dressing room before sending them out to beat Arsenal in a League Cup semi-final. But he would have approved of Havertz soaring to meet Hakim Ziyech's cross, his sixth goal of the season, to settle a tetchy affair littered with eight yellow cards, one of them for Palace boss Patrick Vieira.
Of more questionable taste was £88 million signing Mykhaylo Mudryk, draped in a Ukrainian flag, being introduced to his new subjects at the break after Chelsea gazumped Arsenal and sealed his move from Shakhtar Donetsk on an eight-and-a-half year contract.
HAVE YOUR SAY : Where will Chelsea finish in the table this season? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.
Nothing wrong with parading an expensive new recruit, but that's a holiday snap you wouldn't have seen at the Bridge early last year, when previous owner Roman Abramovich's mate, Comrade Putin, ordered the invasion of a sovereign neighbour's territory.
And to the Chelsea fans who have been chanting their departed oligarch's name at recent games, remind us: Whose side are you on now? Despite seven defeats in 10 previous games, one pleasing aspect of Potter's manifesto has been his faith in 18-year-old left-back Lewis Hall, who is now keeping £60 million misfit Marc Cucurella out of the starting XI.
Hall's promise, creativity and forward thrust begs the question why Chelsea are addicted to big-money solutions in the transfer market – £400 million worth of signings since last May – when there are oven-ready solutions in the academy. But it says much about their performance that goalkeeper Kepa Arrizabalaga, who was at fault for the winner at Fulham, was their best player.
If Kepa's leaping intervention to tip a Michael Olise thunderbolt to safety was top-class, his acrobatic effort to reach Jeff Schlupp's near-post header, and another sprawl to reach Cheick Doucoure's rasping volley, were probably match-winning.
At the other end, Chelsea's finishing was riddled with the anxiety of a side who had scored only four goals in their previous six Premier League games. Havertz beat Palace keeper Vicente Guaita to Ziyech's cross but headed on to the roof of the net, while Conor Gallgaher's low cross picked out Hall at the back post, but the young full-back found the narrow angle too forbidding.
Just when the nerves were curdling towards exasperation, Havertz met another Ziyech left-wing cross with a firm header beyond Guaita, and the relief along the Fulham Broadway was almost tangible. Home fans broke into a spontaeous chant of “Vialli, Vialli” to honour the real man of the moment.
He may be gone but, unlike this game, he will never be forgotten. Rest in peace, Luca.
