Chelsea consolidated their place in the top four of the Premier League with a 1-0 win over Crystal Palace at Selhurst Park on Saturday.
N’Golo Kante scored the only goal of the London derby early in the second half as the Blues made the most of dropped points by Tottenham Hotspur and Arsenal on Saturday.
Antonio Rudiger did engineer a half-chance for himself on 13 minutes with an unchecked run to the near post, but he could not trouble Vicente Guaita with a difficult header from Willian’s free-kick delivery.
The visitors were largely limited to shots from distance as Olivier Giroud teed up Kante for a 25-yard shot, which he dragged wide.
When Chelsea did break the Palace lines, the offside flag thwarted Giroud who thumped Jorginho’s lofted pass into the bottom corner on the volley, only for replays to show that the Frenchman’s strike should have stood.
The woodwork saved Palace twice in as many minutes towards the end of the first half, with Willian striking the base of the post with a dipping free kick.
Palace survived until half time but fell behind six minutes after the restart as Luiz found the run of Kante, who brought down the chipped through-ball and squeezed his shot under the arms of Guaita from 10 yards out.
Not until the final five minutes did Palace push for an equaliser, with Zaha bending a shot high and wide, and Wickham failing to keep down a left-footed prod on the half-volley after being set up 12 yards out by a Tomkins knockdown.
With the victory, Chelsea go five points clear of Arsenal in fifth and within two of second-place Spurs.