Sometimes it’s easy to forget that desperation is every bit as powerful a driver as ambition.

Huddersfield Town came to Stamford Bridge in dire straits on the edge of the drop zone, and left with a point that means jobs are safe, salaries are secure, fans have salvaged survival from the jaws of disaster, and the manager and directors can look forward to another season of top-flight football.

Chelsea needed points too, to keep the pressure on Spurs and Liverpool. But Huddersfield needed the points more, and that’s what told at the end of a supremely effective exhibition of last-gasp defending, though it resulted in a deeply frustrating night for the Blues.

Tony Conte flung everything at getting through the Terriers’ defence, to no avail.

Line after line of red shirted heroes, cheered on by a vocal visiting contingent, ensured that nothing got through after Marcos Alonso’s fortuitous equaliser to cancel out Laurent Depoitre’s breakaway 50th-minute goal for Huddersfield, completely against the run of play.

Even with Olivier Giroud, Alvaro Morata, Cesc Fabregas, Willian and Eden Hazard raining shot after shot at Terriers keeper Jonas Lossl, no winner could be found, and the six minutes of stoppage time – added by ref Lee Mason because of the perpetual time-wasting of Huddersfield – failed to produce a breakthrough.

The Blues had to settle for a point, while Huddersfield celebrated like they’d had a reprieve from a death sentence. Which, in a way, they had.