Didier Drogba was carried off the pitch by his team-mates as he brought an end to his Chelsea career.
For the record, Chelsea beat Champions Sunderland 3-1 at Stamford Bridge But this was the day that the lifting of the Premier League trophy was upstaged by the Ivorian.
A goal from Steven Fletcher quelled the early enthusiasm of the crowd until substitutes Diego Costa from the penalty spot and a brace from Loic Remy restored the supposed natural order of things.
But while the curtain came down on another successful season, the game was treated to one of the most bizarre occurrences ever witnessed on a football pitch - namely a player being carted off the pitch by team-mates in triumph and respect. Not because he was injured but because it was going to be his last game for Chelsea.
That man hoisted to the sidelines after 30 minutes was Didier Drogba who announced earlier in the day that this would be his last game for the Blues.
Was it disrespectful to Sunderland, an attack on the integrity of the game? Well for the 41,000 supporters, the whole game was so unlike any normal league game, it didn't seem to matter.
The match itself was almost a sideshow as the possibility of it also being the last game in blue colours for Petr Cech and Mikel dawned on the fans.
It was carnival time for the fans from before the match started to the final while. In-between there was a decent football match.
Early half-chances for the Blues fell to John Terry, Branislav Ivanovic and Didier Drogba.
But it was Sunderland, on 14 minutes who produced the best effort, a sizzling 25-yard free kick which Petr Cech parried away with consummate ease.
The visitors's goalkeeper Vito Mannone's fingers were stung by Ivanovic's own 20-yard pile-driver a minute later
Ex-Spurs striker Jermain Defoe was next on the list to shoot, again Cech was equal to the effort.
But the Blues, who lost at WBA on Monday went behind to a simple near post header from unmarked Steven Fletcher on 26 minutes.
Diego Costa, who was warming up before the goal, replaced Didier Drogba on 30 minutes.
Then followed that bizarre sight of his team mates carrying him off the pitch in what was his final competitive action for Chelsea.
Jean Cuadrado decided to go for a run at the Sunderland penalty area on 35 minutes. Predictably he was upended by John O'Shea. Costa smashed home the spot kick for his 20th league goal of the season to drag the Blues level.
Cuadrado's match was over three minutes before half time, hobbling off with a left knee injury. Loic Remy replaced him.
Chelsea started the second half like a steam train, Remy had a shot deflected wide while Nemanja Matic headed over from close range.
While Sunderland looked dangerous in the break, Chelsea's supremacy eventually told, and on 70 minutes, a simple pass from Hazard to Remy on the edge of the penalty area, saw the Frenchman drive a daisy-cutter on target. The ball squirmed under an seemingly unsighted Mannone and the comeback for the champions was complete.
Two minutes from time and Remy was the man on the spot to tuck home a close-range side footer from a Matic byline cross.
At the final whistle, the fans, waved their flags, the trophy was lifted by John Terry, there was a lap of honour with the players' family in attack cd.
The last time this happened was five years ago.
But today felt like the end of an era. Drogba's eccentric departure seemed almost fitting for the occasion.
Teams Chelsea, Cech, Ivanovic, Hazard, Drogba, Mikel, Matic, Willian, Cuadrado, Cahill, Terry, Azpilicueta,
Subs, Courtois, Luis, Remy, Costa, Christensen, Boga, Solanke
Sunderland: Mannone, Jones, Van Aanholt, Larsson, Rodwell, Fletcher, Wickham, O'Shea, Johnson, Coates, Defoe
Subs, Pickford, Cattermole, reveille re, Graham, Giaccherini, Vergini, Buckley.
Referee Lee Mason