A bold, masterful second-half triple substitution by Blues manager Tom Tuchel finally broke the deadlock at Selhurst Park as Chelsea nicked all three points right at the death.

The sides had seemed evenly matched until Jorginho, N’Golo Kane and Malang Sarr were subbed in the 74th minute for Ruben Loftus-Cheek, Mateo Kovacic and Marcos Alonso in a dramatic shake-up.

In under a minute the ball was in the Palace net as Hakim Ziyech, going through a real purple patch for Chelsea, fired home after Romelu Lukaku’s shot had been parried by substitute keeper Jack Butland, who had himself replaced Vicente Guaita at the break… only for ref David Coote to rule it out for offside after a wait for the VAR verdict.

Tom Tuchel leads his troops off at half-time at Palace before plotting the triple substitution which helped snatch victory

But it galvanised Chelsea, and in the 89th minute Ziyech did indeed score before celebrating (with his now-trademark blank face) in front of the Blues fans massed alongside the goal. A long diagonal ball by Alonso had teed him up, and the volley was true.

For Palace, the ever-improving Michael Olise was again outstanding. Surely he’s future captain material at Selhurst Park. The 20-year-old has a dazzling punch-style of taking free kicks, is precise, whole-hearted and majestic in and out of possession in the centre of the park. If Roman Abramovich has any thoughts of a new midfielder, Olise would set him back a bit… but well repay the investment.