Fernando Torres and Ramires scored the goals, but Crystal Palace take the plaudits as the west Londoners beat the South Londoners 2-1 at Stamford Bridge.
The Eagles, in the bottom three looked anything like a relegation-haunted side as they bossed the second half completely and were unlucky on a number of occasions not to grasp an equaliser.
Marouane Chamakh scored on 28 minutes, cancelling out Fernando Torres's opportunistic effort on 16 minute. Ramires effort on 34 minutes seemed to be the signal for Chelsea to race away with the game, but the Eagles dug in acquitted themselves well.
Chelsea are now second in the Premier League and next face Arsenal, in nine days time.
A win at the Emirates and the Blues will top the league.
The first counter-attack came for the visitors on three minutes, when Eden Hazard lost possession to Cameron Jerome. The striker nut-merged Brazil centre-back David Luiz, and he raced towards goal. Thankfully, skipper John Terry was on hand to get back, and intercept Jerome and clear the ball to safety.
With that bit of pressure over Chelsea took command of the match, forcing the a eagles back to their final third.
The inevitable came on 16 minutes, when Willian's low drive from the edge of penalty area was tipped onto the left post by goalkeeper Julien Speroni, Torres was the quickest to react and
Slotted home cooly with his right foot from close range to put Chelsea 1-0 up.
Tony Pulis was forced into an ears change as Kagisho Dikgacoi limped off, Stuart O'Keefe replaced him.
Jerome tried a speculative effort on 28 minutes, from range, but Petr Cech easily snuffed out the shot.
But a minute later and with just their second chance on goal, Palace equalised.
The ball was fed wide to Joel Ward. And with David Luiz out of position, Ward arrowed the ball across the six-yard box straight to Marouane Chamakh, who skilfully struck a side-footed volley past a hapless Cech.
But the Eagles were back in the game for,four minutes.
With the ball sent wide on the left by Willian to Hazard, the Belgium midfileder cut inside, beat two men before sliding the perfect ball or his right for the in-running Ramires. the Brazil man lashed the ball with a vicious right-footer from 25 yards out that smashed past prone Speroni and into the back on the net.
Speroni was quick to get down to a Willian snap shot, which left Jose Mourinho furious as another goal for the Blues would have killed the game off something he has been asking off his players recently.
Chamakh then was yellow carded by Mark Clattenberg for hacking down Michael Essien.
Neither manager made any changes at half-time, although that was swiftly amended five minutes in when Yannick Bolasie replaced Barry Bannan for the visitors.
Hazard, slightly off his a game missed a chance three minutes later, while up at the other end Jason Puncheon forced Cech into a smart save.the Czech goalkeeper did remarkably well to get down to a Damien Delaney header after Torres lost his man from a Palace free-kick.
Jose Mourinho made his first change on 61 minutes, bringing off Juan Mata for Oscar.
To be fair to Palace, they made a fine fist of the second half, Chelsea by contrast, look tired and without inspiration.
Quite now they failed to score on 77 minutes is anybodies guess when first O'Keefe's shot was well saved by Cech. The follow-up again by O'Keefe was blocked by a combination of Ivanovic and Terry as the Chelsea rearguard wilted under the pressure.
Delaney then had a near-post header just inch wide of goal as Palace piled on the pressure for the equaliser.
With nine minutes to go, Mourinho made his second change, bringing on German Andre Schurrle for Willian.
Torres was eventually hauled off two minutes later with Demba Ba entering the fray.
The Blues spurred a golden chance to finish off the Eagles when Oscar closed down Delaney at the edge of the penalty areas the ball fell invitingly to Ramires who completly fluffed the chance to slot home. Instead, he attempted attempted a dinked pass to his right to Oscar, but was closed down by Speroni.
The Argentina goalkeeper then produced two brilliant saves to deny Schurrle and Ba, much to the fury of Mourinho.
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Teams: Chelsea, Cech, Ivanovic, Luiz, Essien, Ramirs, Torres, Mata, Hazard, Willian, Terry, Azpilicueta
Subs, Schwarzer, Cole, Lampard, Oscar, Schurrle, Ba, Eto'o
Crystal Palace, Speroni, Ward, Mariappa, Dikgacoi, PunchEon, Jedinak, Gabbidon, Delaney, Chamakh, Jerome, Bannan.
Subs, Price, Parr, Bolasie, O'Keefe, Gayle, Williams, Kebe
Referee, Mark Clattenverg