After two draws on the bounce fans were growing restless for results from Guus Hiddink.
And here they delivered, doling out The Eagles biggest home defeat since the early days of Tony Pulis's reign , and putting in a performance that combined what has become the rare art of teamwork with flashes of individual brilliance.
The opening had not shown promise. Palace were well on top for the first 20 minutes, and the loss of Eden Hazard to a suspected groin strain just after the quarter hour did not point towards a promising return on the trip.
Cesc Fabregas, Chelsea's heartbeat when they perform, looked to be in need of a pacemaker. Same old.
Then, against the run of play, they scored and it was Fabregas who supplied Diego Costa for the cut back that allowed Oscar to tap in.
But more than anything that, and the dominance that was to follow, was down to one man's midfield masterclass – that of John Mikel Obi.
Largely forgotten under Jose Mourinho's reign, since the return of Nemanja Matic, he showed the discipline in midfield to shut down the Palace attacks and turn these to the Blues' own advantage.
Crystal Palace 0-3 Chelsea in pictures:
This, along with a far more hard-working, and far less stroppy and flighty performance from Costa, was what made the difference for Chelsea.
So are the real Chelsea back?
Well, Crystal Palace were severely depleted. And Chelsea also struck upon an Alan Pardew side which has little in terms of a Plan B when things aren't going quite right.
They were also helped by the atrocious weather conditions: which made the Palace long passing game near impossible, and brought dividends from Chelsea's own shorter passing strategy.
In the dry, against a better organised, more tactically accomplished side, Chelsea will not find things anywhere near as easy as they did at Selhurst Park.
But, for the first time in a couple of months, there is a little breathing space now.
Scunthorpe visit in the FA Cup next weekend, which should give Hiddink the chance to see one or two of Chelsea's younger stars-in-waiting in action.
Don't expect a full youth team, or even half of one, as the FA Cup is a competition the Dutchman won in his last stint at Stamford Bridge and will surely want to lift again.
Then comes the visit of West Brom, who back in August provided Chelsea's only other Premier League away win of this dire campaign.
After that Everton travel south – a side among the poorest in the league on the road.
So Hiddink finds himself with a little of the quantity so lacking for Mourinho before his departure – time.
There is no magic wand, and this side will need to carry on battling week after week in the same fashion in order to wrench themselves out of the mire.
But there were definite signs here that just a little of that old Chelsea swagger was back where many will believe it rightly belongs.
