John Obi Mikel score just his fifth goal for the Blues as they cruised past Sporting Lisbon 3-1 at Stamfprd Bridge tonight.
An early penalty from Cesc Fabregas sent the Blues on their way and another first half strike by Andrre Schurrle confined the Londoners' dominance.
Mikel struck in the second half with Jonathan Silva nabbing the only goal for Lisbon.
Jose Mourinho took this dead rubber of a Champion League match seriously, the Blues had already won the group, fielding a side full of internationals with only Rubén Loftus-Cheek a youth team player, sitting in the bench, waiting for his big chance.
Sporting needed to win to have any chance of progressing in the completion, but started as if already a team defeated.
It took just seven minutes after a tepid opening, for the Blues to take the lead.
Left-back Filipe Luis took a typical foray up front and edged into the Sporting penalty area.
After tip-toeing round Ricardo Esgaio, the right-back decided to trip up the Brazilian.
Referee Suein Oddvar Moen had the easiest of decisions to make and he pointed to the penalty spot. Up stepped Cesc Fabregas who tucked away the resultant kick with consummate ease.
German World Cup winner Andre Schurrle, kicking his heels on the bench for most of the league season, but restored to the side tonight doubled the lead on 16 minutes.
He was at the apex of a fine four-man move that cut Sporting apart and picking up the ball from Nemanja Matic, he slotted home an incisive daisy-cutter from the edge of penalty area. Goalkeeper Rui Patricio got a finger-tip or two to the ball but could not alter the trajectory as the ball nestled into the back of the visitors' net.
Patricio was soon in action again, this time thwarting Schurrle who took a first -time shot, on goal from a Cesar Azpilicueta byline cross.
Matic was next up to tempt the Sporting goal. And a vicious left-footed curler from long range, on 28 minutes, just inched over the Portuguese crossbar with Patricio well beaten.
A continuous procession by the group leaders yielded no further serious chances on goal. Sporting, to their credit kept plugging away in the half, Andre Carrillo, the liveliest of the visitors, whose penetrating runs from the counter-attack caused Gary Cahill some consternation.
There were no changes of personnel at half-time.
Knowing that only a win for Sporting will do, they forced the early pace on the restart and after five minutes struck. A weak Schurrle header out to the edge of the Chelsea penalty area saw Jonathan Silva chest the ball down, and unchallenged, drive a low, right-footer past an unsighted Petr Cech.
Mohamed Salah, almost restored the two-goal lead two minutes, but his toe-poked effort forced Patricio into tipping the ball round his post for a corner.
But the Blues did increase the lead and it came from the most unlikely of sources - John Obi Mikel.
On 56 minutes, Fabregas sent in a inward-curling free kick from the left hand side of the pitch. The ball was glanced on by Costa and Mikel was at the far post and he just tapped the ball home over the goal line.
It was only the fifth goal of the Nigeria midfielder's Chelsea career. Mind, that was one more than former striker Robert Fleck And two more than Chris Sutton.
Cech produced another fine save, diving to his left to hold onto a powerful close-range downward header by Silva on 60 minutes.
Jose Mourinho's first change was to replace Salah with Loic Remy with 20 minutes of the game left.
He was soon followed by Ramires with Schurrle making way.
Midfielder Rubén Loftus-Cheek was the final substitution of the night for the Blues and the 18-year-old made his senior debut for the Londoners, coming on for Fabregas with eight minutes left.
Lewisham-born Loftus-Cheek, like Dominic Solanke, who made his Chelsea bow in the previous Champions League tie against Maribor, is a product of the Chelsea academy, having joined the Blues as an eight-year-old. He was part of the winning FA Youth cup side from last season.
He had a few runs and took the applause from the fans, who hope that he might. Like John Terry all those years before become a regular for the Blues
Time will tell in that one.
Next up for Chelsea is the visit, on Saturday of Hull City in the Premier League.