Aided by a fine strike by Arjen Robben, Chelsea strolled past lacklustre Birmingham City at Stamford Bridge to finish the match 2-0, finish the calendar year with 101 Premiership points and more importantly signal to the rest of the chasing pack that this team is not going to fold.
Chelsea's midfielder Michael Essien had a fine dipping strike on five minutes, which Maik Taylor, in goal for the Midlanders, did well to parry away.
Early pressure by the Blues saw three corners in two minutes, but they could not break down resolute defending.
On 19 minutes, Birmingham had a fine chance when a Jermaine Pennant's free-kick was missed by everyone, but Stephen Clemence at the far post.
The midfielder arrowed a fine shot towards goal, but William Gallas cleared the ball off the line.
Five minutes later and Emile Heskey outjumped Paulo Ferreira and unluckily saw his header beat Petr Cech, but the ball clipped the top of the net.
Those chances were enough to wake Chelsea from their festive slumber and a minute later they took the lead.
A fine crossfield movement involving Robben, Crespo and Joe Cole saw Robben whip across a ball into the area, Taylor could only parry the ball out into the gleeful path of Crespo, who tucked the ball home from eight yards.
The Blues should have scored again 60 seconds later when a defensive mix-up by Martin Taylor and Kenny Cunningham saw Cole free to run into the box.
With just Maik Taylor to beat, the England midfielder squared to Crespo, who took too long to put in a strike and the ball was cleared much to the annoyance of Jose Mourinho who kicked the advertising hoardings in frustration.
Crespo then forced another fine save from Taylor, before hitting the crossbar on 33 minutes from a deep Gallas cross.
The second goal was inevitable and two minutes before half-time they struck.
Another fine counter-attack saw Eidur Gudjohnsen slide-rule a pass wide on the left to Robben, who took a touch into the area, before slotting home the ball across the body of Maik Taylor and into the far corner.
Birmingham were not out of contention so long as it remained 2-0 and on 52 minutes, Gudjohnsen was forced to clear the ball off his line after a header from Walter Pandiani was goalbound.
Substitute Oliver Tebily scrambled the ball off his line on 54 minutes and two minutes after that Maik Taylor again produced an excellent save from a Crespo left-footer.
Essien conspired to get himself booked and will now miss the Huddersfield Town FA cup tie.
Chelsea were unlucky not to have scored a third on 71 minutes when a fine header by captain John Terry was headed off the goal-line by Damien Johnson.
Gallas limped off with an apparent hamstring injury with five minutes remaining and Chelsea, who had already made three substitutions, finished the match well with only ten men.